Knaresborough Town won't get too far ahead of themselves despite 'dream start' to new season

Knaresborough Town manager Simon Parkes. Picture: Gerard Binks

The Manse Lane outfit kicked-off their NCEL Premier Division campaign with a 2-0 home win over Pickering Town on Saturday, then followed that result up with an even better one in midweek.

Tuesday saw Boro travel to a Silsden side who are among the early-season promotion favourites and twice come from behind to secure a fine 3-2 victory.

“Obviously this is a dream start and we have to continue to build momentum from this and get into the winning habit,” Parkes told the Harrogate Advertiser.

“We’ve injected some new blood to build around the core of last season’s squad through strong recruitment during the off-season.

“In the Silsden game, we showed the character of our team to come from behind twice to seal the three points. It’s a huge statement of intent as Silsden are tipped to be one of the favourites this season.

“But just two games in, it is important that we stick to our principles and not get too far ahead of ourselves, just taking every game as it comes.

“It’s still very early days, however it’s nice to go into Saturday’s FA Cup fixture full of confidence.”

Summer signing Nathan Cartman, formerly of Darlington and Scarborough Athletic, headed Knaresborough into the lead after 28 minutes of Saturday’s triumph over the Pikes, with Cameron Bedford doubling the advantage early in the second period.

Boro fell behind in the 16th minute of Tuesday’s showdown with Silsden, but were level five minutes later, Danny Edwards smashing home after being played through by George Thewlis.

The hosts reclaimed the ascendancy with half-an-hour gone, though Bedford made it 2-2 when bagged his second in as many matches just a minute after the half-time break.

Edwards then netted the game’s decisive strike on 64 minutes, flicking the ball up and volleying it into the corner of the net in superb fashion following some fine interplay between Cole Wildin, Dom Creamer and Ben Parkes.

“It was great to see Nathan Cartman get off the mark with a debut goal in the opening game,” the Boro chief added.

“Danny Edwards then produced a stand-out performance on Tuesday and I was also pleased for Cameron Bedford getting his second goal in two games.”

This Saturday, Boro host Frickley Athletic in the FA Cup extra preliminary round, 3pm kick-off at Manse Lane.