National North
Upbeat Russ Wilcox feels Farsley Celtic are in a strong squad position going into the festive season.
Farsley may be third bottom in the National North but they are on a high following the stunning victory over fifth placed King’s Lynn Town.
Wilcox, whose side host Leamington tomorrow, says he is looking forward to having a full roster available soon.
“Without a doubt (we go into the next month in a positive frame of mind),” Wilcox told Non League Yorkshire.
“Hopefully Adam Clayton will be back in a week to ten days.
“Isaac Assenso is back involved as he has served his suspension.
“Kian Scales is back after the next game (after serving his suspension).
“You’re only as a strong as your bench and we now have a couple of game-changers.
“Chris Atkinson should be back on a Saturday so all of a sudden the squad becomes better and more competitive.
“That’s the key. To have a competitive side you have to have people looking over their shoulder and being worried if they don’t perform.
“That’s not really been the case for the last month.
“I wouldn’t say they have taken their foot off the gas but sub-consciously sometimes you know as a player you think you’ll be playing next week as there’s no players to push me.
“Hopefully that’ll change in the next week or so.”
Farsley are only three points away from climbing out of the relegation zone and Wilcox wants his men to replicate the form of resurgent Bradford (Park Avenue) who have flown up the table.
“We haven’t had momentum all season,” he said.
“We have lacked consistency.
“We spoke (on Tuesday night) about Bradford (Park Avenue) and said we should take a leaf out of their book.
“After ten games they hadn’t won and everyone had written them off.
“Now they’re eight points off the play-offs.
“Massive credit to them for what they have done, (Mark Bower) has done an unbelievable job.
“We used them as a marker.
“We have had suspensions, injuries and we’re starting to get the squad back together and we said (on Tuesday night) ‘can we produce a run like Bradford (Park Avenue) have’?
“It remains to be seen whether we will but we certainly have a better chance now as we have some key players back in the squad.”
Wilcox also admits the victory over King’s Lynn will have surprised many.
“We have been very competitive this season,” he said.
“I think league is very competitive and you do look at results each week and think ‘wow’.
“I think everyone (on Tuesday) was doing that thinking ‘how has Farsley managed that one’?
“Everything fell in place and it was a deserved win,” he said.
“It wasn’t a lucky win.
“After the game, the King’s Lynn bench said we deserved it.
“We played on the front-foot and we took the game to them.
“I just hope we can produce that more often because sometimes when you are expected to get nothing, the pressure gets lifted and you get a better performance.
“We’ve only lost one in the last four at home so hopefully we are going in the right direction.”