Prosper says he doesn’t feel like Rebels are going to lose at Arbour Park

Midfielder Jeanmal Prosper says the Rebels don’t currently feel like they’re going to lose at Arbour Park, no matter the opposition, with the side now unbeaten at home since early September.

The Rebels midfielder headed home his side’s second goal in Saturday’s hard-working win over Weston-Super-Mare, a result which extends their unbeaten run at the stadium to 16 matches in all competitions.

In fact, it’s now more than five months since their last defeat at home, a 5-2 hammering at the hands of Tonbridge Angels which left Scott Davies’ side rooted to the bottom of the National League South.

After six defeats from their opening seven matches, they had the air of relegation candidates rather than promotion hopefuls back then, but an impressive revival – built on the foundations of their solid home form – has lifted the side to within four points of the play-off places.

They were good value for their 2-0 win over Weston on Saturday, a result that was hard-earned and based on defensive discipline rather than brilliant attacking play. Matt Lench fired the home side ahead just before the halfhour mark with a clever, side-footed finish, while Prosper stooped to head home from a Lench corner early in the second half. They might have had more goals, with man-of-the-match candidate Prosper coming close to a second and Johnny Goddard running clean through on goal late on.

The result lifts them to 12th in the table, four points off the top seven, ahead of a challenging trip to ninthplaced Torquay United this coming Saturday.

Prosper said: “At home we’re really strong. It was 2-0 and it could have been more, but we stuck at it. They came out for the second half really strong but 2-0 at home, we’ll take it. We’re unbeaten in 16 games now so we’ll keep going.

“To be honest, every time we turn up (at Arbour Park), and I said it before we kicked off – ‘we don’t lose here’, and we’ve got to keep that as our motto. We stay strong and we buy into that.

“Any team coming here, I don’t think we look like we’re going to lose. The fans are also brilliant every week.

Hopefully, this gets us a bit closer (to the play-offs), but we’ve just got to keep pushing and keep our fingers crossed.”