Graham Nicholas is happy with the start that Garforth Town have made
Graham Nicholas is content with the way his Garforth Town team have started the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division season.
Garforth are seventh after seven games – eight points from the highly-fancied top five pack – but are brimming with confidence last Saturday’s 5-0 demolition of Glasshoughton Welfare.
Garforth make the trip to crisis club Thackley, who sacked Lee Duxbury earlier this week after just a few days in the job, tomorrow hoping to record a third straight league victory.
Nicholas told Non League Yorkshire: “I think we have been unlucky (so far this season).
“You look at the Retford game and the highlights at when we conceded a 94th minute penalty and it wasn’t a penalty.
“Against Shaw Lane Aquaforce, even when we went down to ten men we still held our own in that game.
“We rode our luck a little bit and again it was a 94th minute equaliser (that earned Shaw Lane a point).
“We didn’t turn up against Nostell, it was a poor performance, but we salvaged a point.
“You have to look at other teams and what they are doing in the league and they’re all taking points off each other.
“The league is wide open and if we were to win our two games in hand over Shaw Lane and Handsworth that might put us two or three points behind them.
“I’m fairly happy. We do have to turn some of these draws into wins and we had to use the Albion Sports game as a platform to continue the momentum against Glasshoughton and we now have to do it against Thackley.
“Every game is tough and we have to show the desire we have got.
“I think this season we know how to win games. We just have to keep it going and I believe in my squad and I think we will be challenging.”
If you view the video of Garforth’s win over Glasshoughton, it looks like men against boys.
Even Nicholas admits it was straightforward.
He added: “I think we played well and started as we meant to go on – that was quite clear from the start.
“We passed the ball really well and we created a lot of chances which was the main thing.
“We just had to be patient for the chances to be converted into goals.
“Looking Glasshoughton’s past results, I thought they would struggle because they have lost one or two key players.
“I think when we went 2-0 up at half-time and they had a player sent off, I thought we could look to score more goals.
“We should have scored more, but I’m happy with what we got. We had 31 shots, I’ve have been told, but on paper you win a game 5-0 – the three points are most important thing.”
Liam Smith is the only confirmed absentee as he’s still serving a suspension for his red card in the Shaw Lane encounter.