Courtney Belford wants his Hinckley AFC side to “play without fear” when they welcome Chelmsley Town to the Welfare Ground tomorrow, kick off 7.45pm.
AFC started 2020 with a narrow defeat to in-form Studley on Saturday, but will need to put that behind them for the visit of Chelmsley tomorrow evening.
And Belford says his side need to be more relaxed – citing August’s fine run of form as the benchmark.
“It’s not been good enough over the last couple of months, but we need to get back to playing without fear and scoring early goals like we were in August.
“There’s always expectancy, especially at a big club like Hinckley, and that comes from the fine job that Carl Abbott did here.
“But the remit has changed slightly since then and we’re trying to take a lot of pressure off the lads and encourage them to be fearless.
“Of course we always want to get promoted, and we want to try and grab that opportunity this season. But it’s not the be all and end all. We’re trying to build a side here for the next three seasons.”
He admits Saturday’s defeat was another example of ‘nearly but not quite’ and wants his side to start taking hold of the important moments in games.
“It was two strong teams doing everything they can to get three points. It was a great advert for the level with attacking football on show at a good tempo.
“But football’s about big moments, and we had one with the penalty. It’s totally different second half if that goes in.”
Chelmsley also started 2020 with defeat, beaten 2-0 at Rocester on Saturday, but have won seven and drawn two of their 22 games so far.
Only Stafford Town have scored fewer goals than Chelmsley but they have enjoyed some good results this season, including their last win just before Christmas when they won 3-0 at Stafford.
Ten-goal Kye Dryden has been their biggest threat in front of goal, and Hinckley will need to keep him quiet if they want to keep a first clean sheet of the new year.
Adults: £6
Concessions: £4
Under 16s: £2 (FREE with HAFC Junior membership card)
