Shaw Lane Aquaforce boss Simon Houghton says his side still have plenty of work to do. Photo courtesy of Arthur Haigh from White Rose Photography
Simon Houghton insists the Toolstation NCEL Division One promotion race is far from over, writes James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson).
Shaw Lane Aquaforce are at the top of the tree as the season heads into the Christmas schedule – three points ahead of second-placed Cleethorpes Town and 11 of Bottesford Town in third.
Free-scoring Aquaforce are well-placed to win promotion, but Shaw Lane boss Houghton is adamant that the job is not done yet and says there are still dangerous teams in the mix.
Aquaforce are away at Selby Town on Saturday.
“I’ve been there before and I know nothing is won at Christmas,” Houghton told Sports Performer.
“I keep preaching to the lads to not get carried away. I know they’re all clichés, but they’re all important.
“People have been ramping up talk about our budget. Somebody said to me the other day that our budget is £3000 a week which is a load of rubbish.
“Whilst we do have a good budget for this level of football, we have lost out of a lot of players who thought we have a bigger budget than we actually have.
“It is going to be tough (to win the league and promotion). Ponte are going strong and are 13 games unbeaten and have had a budget increase. They’ve signed Gareth Grant and he’s not gone there for £25 has he. Kyle Hawthorne has signed there and he’s a good player who should be playing higher.
“Selby are also going strong and we have them on Saturday. They’re strong and organised so it will be a tough game. They’re in-form and so are we. I’m wary of their threats as they have to be of ours.
“But, we’re the top scorers in the league and we have the best defence in the league so we have nothing to fear. We have to guard against complacency though.
“Cleethorpes, Ponte, Worsbrough have all hard games coming up and so have we. There’s a lot of hard work still to do.”
In-form Shaw Lane striker Danny Frost scored a hat-trick in the 11-2 demolition of Louth. Photo courtesy of Arthur Haigh of White Rose Photography
Aquaforce are seven games unbeaten in the league and have won four in a row. They have scored 27 times in those seven matches which includes Tuesday night’s 11-2 annihilation of Louth Town.
His strikers Danny Frost, Ashley Flynn and Steven McDonnell all completed hat-tricks in the win.
Frost has scored 16 goals this season while ex-AFC Emley forward Flynn has hit 22 and Houghton admits he has been impressed with his strike-force.
“The strikers are firing on all cylinders which a couple of weeks was not the case,” he said.
“Steven McDonnell has been playing really well. Danny Frost was superb on Saturday and Ash has got better as the season has worn on. He’s shown that he is more than a finisher.
“He’s always going to score goals and he has been a pleasure to work with.
“They’re on fire which makes it hard for me as a manager. We have a strong squad and that showed on Saturday.
“We really took the game to Hall Road in the second half, but we did have the spark until Danny Frost came off the bench and got the two goals.”
New Shaw Lane Aquaforce defender Dominic Noteman
One-time Farsley AFC defender Dominic Noteman signed last night for Aquaforce and could feature against Selby.
Houghton could have difficult job on his hands picking the side after the Louth victory.
Looking back on the demolition of the Division One’s bottom-placed side, Houghton added: “They got stuck in traffic and arrived at 7.45pm and the referee wouldn’t budge on the kick off time.
“It ended up kicking off at 8pm. It did give us an advantage, but we didn’t start warming-up until after 7.30pm because we didn’t know what was happening with them.
“I felt for them to be honest. We started brightly and took our chances and I think we did play some good stuff.”