CARL Macauley, Witton Albion’s manager, has revealed he felt stressed during his side’s losing run.

They ended a sequence of five successive defeats by beating Workington in midweek, a result that was greeted with relief by everybody at Wincham Park.

“I was counting down the seconds until the final whistle, and I was kicking every ball,” said Macauley.

“It’s been a difficult couple of weeks, and it does affect you as a person when things aren’t going well.

“I have a little boy, who is football mad, and the first things he asks when I arrive home is ‘How did you get on today, Dad?’

“It’s not nice to reply: ‘We got beat again, son.’

“I’ve found that tough, and it does have an impact on you as it would for every manager in a similar situation.

“Even though it affected me at home, I have faith in these players and their ability to cope at this level.

“Football still finds a way to test you though, doesn’t it?

“To win, to score and to keep a clean-sheet, like we did on Tuesday, is exactly the pick-me-up that we needed.”

Witton returned to the Northern Premier League Premier Division’s top 10 as a reward.

That leaves them a point clear of Coalville, their guests tomorrow.

The Ravens travel to Northwich on a rotten run of their own after losing their past four games.

However they did prevail in a return game between the teams last month.

Macauley added: “It’s been a boost to everybody’s confidence to collect those three points, and I think that will serve us well [against Coalville].

“Our immediate priority in midweek wasn’t to win, but to score.

“That’s why we were bolder with our team selection, changing from the back five we’d used [at Hednesford].

“As the home team, I felt we needed to do that and try to cause our opponents problems from the start.

“It worked, and I think that we made good chances.”

He saved praise too for his players’ resilience following Prince Haywood’s dismissal for violent conduct shortly after the interval.

They protected a single-goal advantage, coincidently given to them by the midfielder’s sweetly-struck volley, in relative comfort.

“The sending off did us no favours because we had to work even harder,” said the Albion boss.

“I don’t think they caused us many problems though, and we deserved to win the game.”