Knaresborough Town aiming to start climbing the table as injury crisis eases and experienced players return

Missing nine first-team regulars at one stage, Boro have endured a difficult time of late, winning just twice in 12 matches prior to Saturday’s home clash with Albion Sports.

But, boosted by the return of the likes of experienced centre-halves Gregg Anderson and Greg Kidd and midfielder Craig Hall, the Manse Lane outfit delivered a much-improved performance on their way to a 3-1 victory at the weekend.

"It made a big difference having these players back, particularly the experience of Gregg Anderson in defence," Hunter said.

"With him in there at centre-half, Ben Parkes in midfield and Colin Heath up front, there's experience and know-how running all the way through our spine and that's very important.

"There are voices right through the team and someone like Gregg is massive for us, he's been there and done it, he's a leader and him just being on the pitch gives the younger lads confidence.

"At this level, while every side needs that bit of youthful exuberance, you want two or three lads, not a team full of them. Experience counts for an awful lot.

"When you start losing games like we have recently, players can lose faith in what we're trying to do, however when the experienced lads are there to guide them it really helps and I thought we saw that against Albion Sports."

Reflecting on that victory, which was secured courtesy of goals from Heath, Brad Walker and Mark Simpson, Hunter added: “Saturday was a good win for us, but the performance was more pleasing than the result.

“We’d lost our previous two home matches and not played well at all, which is not ideal when you’ve got more than 125 people turning up to watch you.

“But I thought we were excellent, not just the three very good goals we scored, we looked decent all over the pitch - mainly down to the fact that we had those few lads back.

“It’s been a tough time. At one point I had nine first-teamers out and I don’t think any club at any level could cope with that. It’s unprecedented, I've certainly never seen anything like it before during my time in management.

"But, with lads coming back like Sean Hunter and Dom Creamer, I think we should be able to kick-on from here."

Boro, currently 14th in the division, face a difficult-looking trip to high-flying Handsworth this weekend.

“Saturday will be a very tough one, but after that we’ve got a run of games where we’re looking to pick up points and get ourselves up into mid-table,” Hunter added.

"It's a very tight division. You only need to win a couple of matches back-to-back and you can jump seven or eight places."