LONGTON AIMING TO BOUNCE BACK IN BIG HOME MEETING
GEORGE Glenn says his Longton players are hugely motivated to show their true colours in Midlands Two West North.
Longton have lost their last two matches - to high-flying Leek and Walsall - despite turning in contrasting performances.
Longton largely impressed in their defeat at Leek, but were well beaten by Walsall at home last weekend and were not helped by head coach Glenn being red-carded.
Hooker Glenn was deemed by the referee to have thrown punches during an incident in the 61-21 loss, although the decision was hotly contested.
“My red card is being dealt with by the Staffordshire disciplinary committee,” said Glenn, who will miss this weekend’s home clash with Moseley Oak.
“It made our task a lot more difficult, but we hadn’t started the game very well at all.
“When we lost at Leek, I couldn’t fault the lads’ attitude or the way we played. It was probably our best performance of the season, despite the result.
“But against Walsall we were not physical, didn’t tackle and didn’t put bodies in front of people.
“There were not too many positives from last Saturday, although Chris Edmondson and Saul Forrester did well when they came on and there was an improvement in the second half.”
The defeat leaves Longton in seventh place in the table, although they are just four points adrift off fourth place.
Moseley Oak arrive at Trentham Lakes having ended leaders Leek’s unbeaten record last weekend.
“That result stood out last weekend,” added Glenn. “They are usually strong at home, so we will see hoe they are coming here. We will not take them lightly.
“Not making excuses, but every team in the league will miss players and we had four or five out for both the Leek and Walsall games.
“Those were games where you want your strongest 15 or 18 available and we couldn’t do that.
“But it has been a bit of a wake-up call that if we’re not 100 per cent on it, then we will lose matches in this division.
“However, there’s a real desire and hunger in the squad to bounce back this weekend.
“It was our first home defeat for a
while, but now we have a run of four winnable games before Christmas, and if we do manage to win them, we’ll be in a healthier position.”
LEEK will look to recover from last weekend’s defeat when they entertain NEWCASTLE at Esterchem Park, UTTOXETER entertain STAFFORD and CREWE & NANTWICH host Old Saltleians.
STOKE saw their run of nine successive Midlands One West victories come to an end with defeat at Hereford last weekend.
And their bid to recover will
face another stern examination tomorrow.
Stoke, sitting in third now, are at home to second-placed Kenilworth in what is expected to be an intriguing encounter.
In Midlands Premier, SANDBACH have home advantage against Bridgnorth tomorrow.
Sandbach are in seventh place, with Bridgnorth just one place above them.
Bridgnorth are in decent form, though, and have seven wins from their nine league encounters so far.