NPL Division One East
Steve Roberts admits it is imperative Pickering Town take points from their upcoming run of four consecutive home games in the league.
Pickering are bottom of the table – but in a pack of five teams on similar points after 11 games.
The Pikes have been dealt a tough hand as eight of them have been away from home.
The visit of Cleethorpes Town kicks off the home fixtures and Roberts knows how important the next few weeks are.
“We have been speaking about it a lot and we have eight away games games which is a lot compared to other teams,” Roberts told Non League Yorkshire.
“We have four on the bounce with the FA Trophy in the middle.
“(The home games) are really important and we have to go into these four games with a real positive mindset to be on the front-foot against these sides.
“No matter who we play at home we have to try and win these games.
“We have to recognise where we are now and we are lowly in the table.
“We’re not at panic stations yet because it is very tight down there so we know a couple of wins could change the picture entirely.
“It is great to win the FA Trophy game but the flip side to that we would have liked it to have been a league game for the three points because you’re sitting on nine points instead of six.
“We’re nowhere near adrift but we do need to get some points on the board in these home games.”
Pickering’s fortunates in the past four weeks have been mixed.
Roberts’ men won at Frickley Athletic but have suffered defeats to Worksop Town and Stockton Town.
The other positive was beating Ramsbottom United in the FA Trophy.
“It has been up and down which is something we’re trying to resolve,” he said.
“We’ve had some good performances and obviously Frickley was the first of them.
“We got the monkey off our back and we were looking to kick on from it.
“Then we had a disappointing result in the Worksop but as daft as it sounds we didn’t play that badly.
“It wasn’t a bad performance but we didn’t finish the chances we created.
“The one after which was the FA Trophy win was brilliant for the club from a financial aspect.
“The next hurdle is getting back-to-back victories which we haven’t been able to do.”
The highlight of the last month was winning at Frickley which was their first away victory in the league in over two years.
“It was almost three years without an away win which was a massive monkey,” he said.
“We have also picked up a few points away from home as well.
“The away form has slightly improved which is good but we have to get points at home.”