NPL Division One East
Steve Roberts admits Pickering Town are heading into a crucial set of fixtures.
Second-bottom Pickering host 13th placed Lincoln United tomorrow – one of several games coming up against teams around them in the next month.
“I’ve looked ahead at December and January and I’ve spoke about that by the end of January we need to be in a completely different position,” Roberts told Non League Yorkshire.
“There is a lot of games to come in that timescale.
“December is an important month because we’re playing sides around us like Bridlington, Ponte, Lincoln.
“There are all six-point games.
“They are the games we need to look at getting some points on the table from.
“By the end of the January I’m hoping to look up rather than down.
“That will come with consistency and performances but I’m been really pleased with the players’ attitudes.
“Nothing has got the players down and we don’t act like a side down at the bottom.”
A Pickering win would be a rare back-to-back victory in the league – and even rarer third straight win in all competitions.
The Pikes beat Thornaby in the North Riding Cup on Tuesday night but their last league game saw them win 4-1 against Sheffield FC and Roberts has been buoyed by those results.
“The level of performance against Ossett (in the 2-0 defeat a month ago) was good – I was pleased with it, just not the result,” he said.
“We are moving in the right direction and obviously I was really pleased with the result against Sheffield.
“We learnt from our mistakes and we were more organised and disciplined and more ruthless in both boxes.
“So it was definitely more positive against Sheffield and the cup game the other night was a plus too.”
On the Lincoln match, he added: “Lincoln is another big game and when you’re down where we are they are all big games.
“Lincoln is another team who around us.
“I’ve had a good look at them and there’s still no easy games.
“But at home we can’t be in fear of any side, we have to try and play our game and produce to get some points.
“It was a six-pointer against Sheffield FC and this is exactly the same.
“Looking at the games we have played, we have a couple of games-in-hand and it is at the stage where one more victory can be massive.
“It would put us further up the table and closer to other sides and that is what we need to do.
“(Lincoln) is a game we can’t be looking to lose.
“It would be the worst possible result.”
Pickering’s position is far from doom and gloom as them and four other teams have similar points totals.
Roberts who is close to his second anniversary as Pickering manager agrees the situation is far better than the one he inherited in January 2020.
“It is a lot different when you look back to when I first came in before the first lockdown,” he said.
“We were six or seven points adrift at the bottom and ten points off catching the team third bottom.
“It is a lot more competitive now and if you can get two wins it could be a completely different picture and that’s what we need to look to do.
“We need to string two or three results together back-to-back which we haven’t done all season.”