Lashenko hoping Farm can produce ‘perfect’ ending to difficult season
BRISTOL Manor Farm’s “scared” supremo Lee Lashenko is confident his team will pull out all the stops as they face a final enthralling fight to retain their Southern League status tomorrow.
Farm have, since Tuesday night’s 4-0 Gloucestershire Senior Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Bristol City Under-23s, found themselves preparing for an interstep 4/5 one-off play-off at their BS3 Services Stadium base against Saltash United, who finished second behind Cornish compatriots Mousehole in Toolstation Western League competition.
Lashenko’s men find themselves embroiled in a nerve-shredding climax to a challenging Division One South season due to the fact they and Bideford, who have been informed they will now stay up without having to confront a playoff of their own, finished up in the bottom four places while at least managing to avoid automatic demotion suffered by Slimbridge and Cinderford beneath them.
Creek boss Lashenko admitted of the scenario: “I’m nervous; scared, even. If you’re not feeling like that going into a game of this magnitude against a team from a lower division, you can easily fall into complacency. Feeling apprehension can keep you on your toes.
“That certainly doesn’t mean to say we’ll go into the game not believing in ourselves. We’ll be facing Saltash in good form with lots of positive results behind us in recent weeks.”
Lashenko admits Tuesday’s midweek county cup collision with Bristol City’s own aspiring young guns “came at the wrong time.”
He reasoned: “Ordinarily you’d be really looking forward to a match like that at the end of a season. As it turned out, it was sandwiched between two really important games, the first of which we came through successfully in beating Westbury 1-0 on Saturday, and now this Saturday’s play-off fixture.
“It meant the City game proved a bit of a hindrance to us which was a shame, as it was watched by a great turnout of around 300 people. Of course, we certainly didn’t want to undervalue an occasion like that either, so it was difficult.
“City, as you’d expect with them being a professional under-23 side, were full of good young players; but so were we. In fact, we had six lads starting under the age of 18, five of whom finished the game.
“It was always going to be hard after we fell behind to a great finish
and then conceded a soft goal for their second. But I wasn’t displeased with our performance.”
The Farm leader, who will be without suspended 24-goal leading marksman Owen Howe tomorrow, stressed: “Whichever team we’d come up against in the play-off would have been in good form. They’d be used to winning games in their own league, meaning they’d be a tough cookie to crack.
“While Saltash are looking for promotion to the Southern League, for us it’s about having to maintain our Southern League status. There will be some mouth-watering games in our division next season with Yate dropping down and Cribbs promoted, not to mention our old local rivals Paulton and Frome around still.
“It would be a perfect way to end our season in front of our own supporters were we to celebrate victory on Saturday, and on the very anniversary of our devoted former chairman Geoff Sellek’s death.”
Paulton Rovers’ manager Craig Loxton feels his team’s last-gasp winner from Joe Morgan against ambitious play-off chasing Winterfield Road guests Bashley to cement a 2-1 final-day Division One South success was a perfect scenario with a cup final to confront.
Paulton are now gearing up for an enticing encounter with midtable National League South side Bath City in the final of the Somerset Premier Cup at Weston-superMare’s Optima Stadium on Tuesday night (7.45pm).
“That win over Bashley, and in the manner it came about in stoppage-time, has given everyone a lift going into the Bath game,” said Loxton.
“Bath are two divisions above us and more than holding their own; so we’ll clearly have our hands full.
“We played well against Bashley as well as winning the game, so there’s a real feel-good factor around the place.”
Loxton added: “Whether going into the Bashley match the pressure had lifted off our lads because we’d already retained our place in the league, I don’t know.
“I really couldn’t fault any of our players starting the game or coming off the bench. No one had an off day. I’ve said before that when everyone is confident and firing, we’re a really good team.”
The Rovers boss concluded: “Once the cup final business is over, we’ll speak to the squad and to potential targets with a view to building to be more competitive next season.
“I always knew when I took the job that it would be a period of change for everyone. It can take a while to get to grips with everything and each other.
“I’ve already met with the committee and outlined plans, and everyone seems to be on board.”
Yate Town manager John Rendell has confirmed he’s going nowhere in the mission to rekindle his club’s fortunes following their relegation as Premier South’s second-bottom team.
“There’s no one more disappointed than me that we’ve not managed to stay up,” said the former Paulton boss.
“A whole multitude of things over the past six months led to us going down, including lack of quality and ruthlessness in both boxes and a horrendous run of results when everything went against us.
“I’m well aware that in most cases the manager carries the can for that sort of form. But I feel people could see what we were trying to do, and I still believe I’m the right man to lead us forward again.
“I’m already working with our new chairman Mark Thorne, who shares my desire to rebuild, with a view to putting in the energy and infrastructure required to get us back up, although everyone knows a reset button needs to be pressed.
“Financially there have been lots of outgoings when we simply haven’t had enough income to cover costs. That, for starters, is not a good formula for success.”
Rendell emphasised: “We need a big marketing push and more bodies carrying out important roles behind the scenes. We’re excited about a new 16-19 youth and education programme, which we introduced successfully at Paulton. And there are plans afoot to reintroduce reserve and ladies teams.
“On the playing side we’ll be looking to bring in more good lads we can trust and work with, although we’ll be doing it with a reduced budget as first and foremost we need to be sustainable.”