Steve O's match day notes - Kempston Rovers

It felt like a good sign of our current progress and mentality that only picking up a single point on Tuesday night at home to promotion chasing Risborough felt somewhat of a disappointment.

It was a really entertaining game of football between sides that, from my assessment, seemed very evenly matched in terms of quality and performance. Risborough are a good side, have had an excellent season and will be looking to achieve Step 4 football by the end of this campaign, so it gives us real confidence heading into these four crucial final games that we can perform against the best teams in the division.

Of course, when they went down to 10 men with 20 minutes to play you want to go on and win the game. The approach was right, we had some close moments and found ourselves up against a man of the match performance by the opposition keeper. However, we saw only a month or so ago against Kings Langley that even against 10 men it can be difficult, so we will take the point. Who knows how important it might be once the season is all said and done.

It doesn’t need me to say it for people to know, but obviously today’s game is going to be important in terms of how the last couple of weeks play out. We have been that team in the past month that have had to play like each game is the biggest of our lives, and we will face a Kempston team with that same motivation.

It’s a game that won’t just be defined by which team wants it more, but also by which can keep composed at the critical moments, with clear heads, and produce with quality when the opportunity presents itself. As Micky and I have said since day one, we believe we have the lads to do that, and it’s been evident over the past month that we have collectively started to reach more consistent levels of performance. We need another string performance today.

Regardless of the result of this game, we know we are in this fight until the end. The club has come together brilliantly in the past couple of months and the support we have received in person, both before, during and after games, makes a huge difference.

We have four games left at Creasey Park, four opportunities to perform and win points. We need your support in each and every minute of those games, starting today.

Enjoy the game!

Steve