Gosport boss Lee has to be a Mr Motivator
Lee Molyneaux admits it can be hard for his squad to raise themselves against the Southern League’s lesser lights.
The Gosport boss has assembled a group of players who have mostly played at a higher level - including many who were regulars for the Hawks in the National League Premier last season.
That has no doubt helped Gosport record some impressive results against the top teams this season. Of the five clubs above Borough, they have beaten Tiverton, Taunton and Chesham and only lost 1-0 to Truro (in the 97th minute) and Swindon Supermarine.
In contrast, they have failed to beat three of the bottom four teams at Privett Park - Beaconsfield (0-0), Dorchester (4-4) and Yate (1-1).
And they only saw off seven-bottom Harrow at the weekend with a second-half winner from Theo Lewis.
‘With the players I have, it is easy to get them up for an FA Trophy tie at Bath City in front of 700 people,’ said Molyneaux. ‘It’s not so easy when you’re playing Beaconsfield at home in front of 150.
‘But it’s my job to motivate the players for those games, and obviously I haven’t always done that this season as you can see from some of our home results.’
Gosport’s weekend win saw them close the gap on the play-off places to four points, though they have played more games than everyone else above them. In addition, Poole are seven points behind but have six matches in hand.
‘I’m happy enough with our position,’ said Molyneaux. ‘Ideally we’d be clear at the top. I want to win the title.
‘But I see my job as trying to build stronger foundations off the field as well as winning games on it.
‘This club deserves better than being second or third bottom, as it has been for the last three years. I want to get us back to where we used to be. You have to remember I signed 18 players when I took over in the summer. I wasn’t able to come in and just tweak a few things.
‘We were also made title favourites because of the players I signed, and that’s worked against us a bit.’