1874 Northwich manager Damian Crossley feels at this stage that continuing to ‘take steps forward’ is the way to try and break out of trouble for his relegation-threatened side.
Greens, bottom of Northern Premier League West and nine points from clearing the danger zone, could give themselves a massive boost by achieving a result against third bottom Trafford at Townfield on Saturday.
Crossley’s men ended a seven-match losing streak when they drew 1-1 at another struggling outfit, Mossley, at the weekend thanks to Oliver McFadyen’s first goal for the club.
That followed a woeful 5-0 defeat at Widnes seven days earlier.
“We’ll work hard in training. We’ll go into the game with a game plan, in the same way that we did against Mossley,” said Crossley, who is now 10 games into his time at the helm and still looking for a first victory.
“It was a little step forward on Saturday, not a massive jump, but if we can step forward again next week we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
He expressed his gratitude at the continuing support from the terraces.
“The fans were fantastic on Saturday, came in their numbers and it’s really pleasing that we were able to give them something to hold on to, something to go home with that’s positive rather than they keep coming and we keep getting beat,” said Crossley.
“Saturday was a really positive day for them and it was nice that we could repay some of that warmth that they give us and that support that they give us.
“And hopefully this Saturday they’ll turn up in their numbers and we can take another step forward.”
Against Mossley, 1874 fielded a changed team, with new recruit from Salford City Ezikiah Bowen being ‘outstanding, and Crossley confirmed a change in tact.
“I thought we performed fairly well,” said Crossley, replaced the departed Jack Marrow with Tom Fagan and moved skipper Matt Woolley up front.
“We wanted to be a little more cautious in the way we went about it and build a performance again, go a bit more back to front perhaps, and I thought it worked quite well.
“I thought the first 20 minutes we dominated them and we looked good.
“Then we had a little wobble and they scored. But we dug in and didn’t let the game get away from us.
“We stuck around and got to half-time. Second half we dug in again, Kacper (Mialkowski) hit the post and then Ollie (Oliver McFadyen) put in the equaliser for us.
“But coming from where we were the previous week I think it was a massive improvement.
“It was a difficult week but we worked hard and full credit to the lads, particularly the lads that have come in and I thought it was a really good team performance.
“We looked a really together group. I was really pleased.”
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