THE PEAKS OF OUR POWERS
TAMWORTH boss Andy Peaks is the master of staying level headed – but he even admits there’s no hiding the Lambs are in a title race.
Peaks’ side moved 12 points clear at the top of the National League North on Tuesday night with a huge win over rivals Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park in front of a crowd of 5,277.
The Iron still boast two games in hand and Peaks, whose side won the Southern League Premier Central championship on the final day of last season, knows there is a lot of football to be played.
But the remit to simply survive in their first season back at Step 2 has been reviewed!
“We look at it and we have to say we’re in a race to win this league now,” Peaks told The NLP. “The figures don’t lie. It’s going to be tough, there’s a lot of tough games to go.
“If we do drop standards, we’re going to get found out
– that’s a fact. We’re going to have some blips along the way because we’ve got a lot of good teams to play home and away.
But we’ve put a stamp down and stuck to that.
“We’ve been absolutely top drawer. We’ve come a long way – quicker than anyone expected. Me included. I thought we’d be alright because of the characters and ability we’ve got. But to do what we’ve done, if you’d told me we would, I’d have been surprised.”
Dan Creaney’s late goal was enough to secure the points on Tuesday night and, for Peaks, it was just another marker for how far the team have come since his arrival from AFC Rushden & Diamonds nearly two years ago.
“I was well proud of the them, because I thought they were fantastic and they did themselves justice,” Peaks said. “But I’ve been really proud of the group in the two years I’ve been here in how far they’ve come.
Proud
“When I first started at Tamworth, Scunthorpe would still have been in the Football League. When you see the fact they’re full-time, the resources, the players and everything about it – for us to be competing does make me proud. I think we’ve created a really good product.”
And that starts with having the right spirit in the changing room.
“We had a fantastic season last year and we lost two or three key players for different reasons,” Peaks said. “We didn’t get loads of players in but the ones who have come in not only are good players, more importantly they’ve enjoyed the atmosphere we’ve created and built into that.
Spirit
“They knew when they come into play for me they’ve got to have good work rate, I like us to be organised and I want a togetherness. They’ve all bought into that and it’s made it easy.
“My backroom staff and I like to do loads of vetting and not pick people out just because they’ve scored a load of goals. We like to know they’re going to fit into the changing room because I don’t want to spoil what we’ve got. The spirit has been our success.
“And we’re realistic. We’re not going to win every game so we don’t get too high when we have these great results and, when we lose, we don’t get too low.”