Raise your game lads, orders Benn

Wayne Benn has ordered his Hemsworth Miners Welfare players to raise their games with a tough test against fellow promotion-chasers Penistone Church looming.

Toolstation NCEL Division One leaders Hemsworth are one point clear of second-placed Bottesford Town at the top, but Benn has been unhappy with recent displays.

Benn claims that if his side play like they did in the 6-3 win over Lincoln Moorlands Railway then Hemsworth could lose in the league for the first time since the middle of September.

Benn and his former Bradford (Park Avenue) team-mate and Penistone Church manager Ian Richards, both possess dangerous attacking line-up and the former said: “Absolutely, it could be an interesting game and it could be decided by each other’s front-line.

“It might be who defends the best on the day. With the talent on the pitch you’d expect goals, but more than likely it will be 0-0.

“One thing is for sure is that if we defend like we did against Lincoln then we’re going to make life hard for ourselves.

“What I will say is that my players tend to turn up in the bigger games and react properly.

“If we perform like we did against Lincoln and in some of the games previous then we’ll get beat, it is as simple as that.

“Penistone have been on a good run and we expect a tough game. It is a big game for two reasons as if they win the gap closes on us, whereas if we win it we could go as high as 13 points clear of them.

“That’s the motivation for us. If we win our game in hand on Emley and beat Penistone then that’s 12 or 13 points that we have on two of our promotion rivals.

“That would be a nice gap to have.”

Hemsworth chase a ninth consecutive league victory tomorrow. In those run of matches, there have been some hammerings, alongside closely-fought wins over the likes of Grimsby Borough, AFC Emley and Hallam.

It is the displays against teams in the bottom six that have frustrated Benn.

He added: “You can’t be over-critical because we’re winning games, but I place a lot of emphasis on performances.

“It is an entertainment business and we want to entertain our supporters. We want to be pleasing on the eye by creating lots of chances.

“To a point we do it, but we only do it for half a game. We’re not doing a great deal wrong, but I have high standards and I want the lads to have them as well.

“At the minute the standards are nowhere near where they should be other than in the (FA Vase win over) West Auckland game because we were superb against them.

“We have tended to let the teams at the bottom of the table off the hook. It is something we need to focus on and we need to be more ruthless.

“You see Emley and Mansfield putting 12 past teams and we should be doing the same.

“Going back to the Worsbrough game we should have been 14-1 up at half-time and that’s not to be disrespectful to them.

“Shane Kelsey scored two, but missed six. Billy Law hit the bar. Danny Critchlow missed two one-on-ones.

“No exaggeration it could have been the record score at half-time. We let Lincoln off the hook last week like I also felt we let Rossington Main off the hook.”