Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Reborn Hemsworth Miners Welfare are going all out to end leaders Grimsby Borough’s unbeaten home record in the league in a bid to strengthen their great escape attempt.
That’s the message from Shane Kelsey whose side are out of the relegation zone for the first time since August following two wins, a draw and one defeat during January.
The Wells go to Grimsby on Wednesday night seeking a major scalp which would lift them four points of the bottom two.
“We’re going there to try and win the game,” Kelsey told Non League Yorkshire.
“People will read this and laugh but I talk about a winning mentality and a challenge and what a better challenge (against a team unbeaten at home)?
“People wrote us off and there’s still people who think we are done.
“How nice would it be to the first team to go there this season and take three points.
“We have to test ourselves and see if we can compete with the current best team in the league.
“We have to go there and show people what we are capable of.
“We cannot play with fear and (because of the position we are in) we can’t play for a point.
“We have to aim for three points in every game.”
Wins over Winterton Rangers and Staveley Miners Welfare plus the draw with Silsden have changed the course of the campaign for Hemsworth.
At the end of 2021, following the defeat at Goole AFC, the Wells looked doomed but now they sit above Albion Sports by one point.
“It is not rocket science, (January) has given us a shout of avoiding relegation,” Kelsey said.
“We’re out of the relegation zone on points but Albion have got three games-in-hand.
“As you’ve seen many times, having games-in-hand do not mean anything unless you win them.
“I’ve been in those situations where I’ve had games-in-hand and the pressure is immense, most notably as you know in that (2014/15) season with Shaw Lane when we had all those games-in-hand.
“You saw some strange results that season.
“There’s pros and cons to (games-in-hand).
“There’s no pressure on us whatsoever because we were already wrote off.
“We’ll worry about ourselves and you have to remember we will a million miles away until recently.
“We have worked hard and the players have bought into what we wanted and they are playing with a bit of freedom and belief.”
According to Kelsey, the wins have changed people’s perception of Hemsworth.
“Winterton were eighth in the league and you know what people are saying and what’s they are thinking before the game,” he said.
“They had the top goal-scorer (Josh Walker) playing and he was probably thinking he was going to add considerably to his tally.
“We shut them out and dealt with him quite comfortably.
“Garforth probably saw us as a different beast and we put in a decent performance.
“We were probably unlucky not to get anything even with ten men.
“Did Staveley approach us in a different manner?
“We controlled the game from minute one to 95 and did the job.
“Now I guarantee that teams will take us more serious now.
“(Recent results) have an impact all round.”
The turnaround has also coincided with the return of club legends such as Nash Connolly.
He was a team-mate of Kelsey’s during the 2016 Division One title-winning season and Kelsey says his team need to focus on a “winning mentality” going into the final ten games of the season rather than a “points target”.
“We know the lads in that changing room have the ability because they have proven it in the past,” he said.
“The lads have good experience at this level and I’ve said to them that I have a winning mentality and I want that winning mentality in that changing room.
“I’ve said that no matter how daft it may seem to an outsider, they need to be walking into that changing room with the attitude that we can win every game no matter who we are playing.
“The points target for me is to win every game we have left.
“If players aren’t wanting that then ultimately I’m not at liberty to pick them.
“It is not a friendship game, it is about winning by any means possible.”