Knaresborough Town boss Stansfield eyes change of luck

Knaresborough Town's George Eustance challanges for the ball. PIC: Craig Dinsdale.

Stansfield saw Town sitting sixth in NCEL Division One just three games ago, but his side have dropped to 12th on the ladder after a luckless month.

While other teams have played up to seven fixtures, Boro have played just three times and taken a point from their recent exploits, but that doesn’t tell the full story, as Stansfield explains.

“It’s been difficult recently,” he told the Knaresborough Post.

“We’ve played three of the top five teams over the last few weeks. We’ve played really well and been the better team each time but we’ve only come away with a point when we probably should have had seven.

“The game on Saturday was probably the most frustrating of them all,” he mused, of the 2-0 home loss to Hallam.

“We were excellent. We dominated the game and we were the better side, but we just couldn’t finish our chances.

“We had two goals ruled out for offside, two cleared off the line, and their goals came from an own goal and one on the break five minutes from time which finished us off.

“A lot of factors seemed to go against us, their goalkeeper was the man of the match as well which tells its own story.”

Stansfield admitted the defeat left him feeling desolate immediately after the final whistle, but said he still has every confidence in his side going forward.

“It was soul destroying after the game but, looking back on it 48 hours later, we know we played well and a bit of luck would have given us a completely different result.

“We’re not worried. Confidence is still high, as it has been all year, and all we need is a little break and we’ll be back on our game.

“We’ve obviously dropped down the table and the lads are a bit rusty but if they keep stepping up then we’ll stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get to where we want to be, which is in the play-off places.”

If their fortunes are to change on Saturday, they will have to keep 46-goal top scorer Ashley Flynn quiet when they make the short trip to AFC Emley, but Stansfield is bullish about their chances.

“We’ll train hard and go there looking to win,” he said.

“They are scoring loads of goals and Ashley Flynn is flying – if we had a player who had that many goals we would be top, but it’s up to us to stop him.

“Emley is always a tough place to go, but we’ll go there with confidence.”