Toolstation NCEL Division One
Luke Forgione wants Worsbrough Bridge to flex their muscles and finish the campaign on a high note.
Surprise package Worsbrough – who visit Nostell Miners Welfare on Friday night – are ninth and well-positioned with eight games to go to claim a top half place.
Forgione is hopeful but he says his side’s form remains erratic.
“I still think we can be Jekyll and Hyde,” Forgione told Non League Yorkshire.
“I think you can see that with our results.
“We have won 16 games this season which we’re really pleased but seven of those games have been won at home and six of them were before November.
“We have mentioned that we’re disappointed with that stat that we have only won one game at home since November.
“We have a few games coming up this month and we’d love to put some wins together at home and finish the season well.
“We have been good on the road and we’re in the top five teams for the most wins away from home.
“We have to continue to stride for the top ten.
“If you look at where we are currently, a few teams around us dropped points at the weekend and I think it is in our hands.”
One of the few disappointments from a great campaign for Worsbrough is their home form.
Forgione, one of Chris Hilton’s invincibles, had hoped his side would pump iron at home and turn Park Road into a fortress.
“I mentioned to the lads that it is disappointing because I wanted to make it a difficult place for teams to come to,” he said.
“I asked staff and players the question ‘why do you think we’re winning more games away from home’?
“We got some answers back from that.
“Maybe tactically we might be more adventurous at home.
“Does the hill play a part in it?
“Does the surface play a part?
“But because the amount of games we have won this season, whether home or away, it has been a good season and we’re hoping to finish it strongly.
“If people had said at the start of the season that we’d win this amount of games we’d have took it all day long.”
Worsbrough face Nostell for a third time this season on Friday night.
Nostell’s form has been poor recently but Forgione is not under-estimating them.
“I know they are going through a sticky patch or tricky spell but we have played them twice this year and in both games there has been five goals and we have come out on the wrong side in both,” he said.
“I’m not a massive believer in form at this level.
“If you don’t perform, anybody can beat you.
“I know they are in a sticky patch but they could easily turn us over if we don’t perform.”
Even though the campaign still has less than a month ago, Forgione is planning for the 2022/23 season.
“The idea is to finish as strong as we can and high as we can,” he said.
“It would give us hope that we can maintain most of the squad from this season.
“We have already identified players who would like to bring in to strengthen us next season.
“But we also don’t know who we are going to lose.
“I think it is quite easy for us to lose players due to our budget in comparison to other clubs.
“I’m hoping our boys will have enjoyed it this year and want to stride to finish higher next season.
“Most of our players haven’t had a full season in the NCEL and I believe they will get better because they have age on their side.
“I’m just hoping we can retain them going forward.”
Forgione found recruiting hard last summer but he expects easier conversations this year.
“Obviously I haven’t had conversations with players about next season at the moment in time,” he said.
“Last year in the summer it was my first season as a manager at this level so it wasn’t easy to go and recruit players.
“But if you look at our season, our recruitment has gone well.
“When I go back to the summer when I was speaking to people, they probably did ‘say the side is too young, they’re not going to do much’.
“In the summer, some people might consider us when 12 months ago they wouldn’t have done.”
Rumours have been circulating around Barnsley and the surrounding areas that Forgione planned to don the Worsbrough jersey one last time before the end of the season.
However, the Bridge boss has ruled it out.
“A few people have said ‘are you going to play yourself one more time’,” he said.
“I don’t think that would be the right thing to do.
“The sentimental side of me thinks it would be but it would make a bit of a mockery of what it is about.
“It is not about me, I’ve had my time playing football.
“I’m doing a bit outside for my own health and trying to lose some weight.
“I can’t see myself playing for Worsbrough again.
“It is the club’s centenary next year so there may be a game next year, that might be my opportunity to play for the club again.
“But my boots are well and truly hung up.
“I think I’d embarrass myself if I played.
“I look at our lads and some of them are miles better than I was at their age.”