NPL Division One East
Brett Agnew says Bridlington Town have a real chance to pull away from relegation danger during January.
This afternoon’s trip to Lincoln United is the first of four box office fixtures which could catapult Brid totally away from trouble.
Three consecutive wins in December altered the course of their campaign and Agnew hopes this month will be a defining one.
“If we hadn’t got those three wins we’d have probably still been in the bottom two,” Agnew told Non League Yorkshire.
“If Pickering had beaten us they would have been ahead of us.
“We’d have been in the bottom two and everything would have looked bleaker and darker and the fans wouldn’t have been happy.
“Now we have given ourselves a fighting chance for a mid-table spot rather than the bottom two.
“This month is a massive month for us because we play Lincoln, Pontefract, Tadcaster and then Hebburn.
“All those four teams are around us so these next four games massively important, especially the next one against Lincoln.
“If we beat Lincoln we go ahead of them.
“(The next few weeks are) an opportunity to exert ourselves in the mid-table battle and finish the league in a reasonable position which would be absolutely outstanding.
“We were tipped to go down at the start of the season by a lot of people.
“Our aim is to just stay in the league and we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves.
“If we finished third from bottom and stayed up I’d still be over the moon as it would be an absolute fantastic job done because of the resources we have got.”
The defeat to Cleethorpes Town last week ended a dream sequence of three straight victories – over Dunston, Yorkshire Amateur and Pickering Town.
The results lifted Brid away from the bottom two and Agnew admits it was a huge run.
“(The wins) have obviously given us a platform to build on,” he said.
“When you’re down there it is difficult getting points.
“We identified at the start of December that it was the beginning of our season.
“We had the 5-0 defeat against Marske which was deflating but we knew we had played well and it probably shouldn’t have been five.
“We said we needed to kick on and we went and played Dunston and beat them.
“We then beat Yorkshire Amateur and then we beat Pickering so it has propelled us into a good battle down there.
“The game against Cleethorpes could have gone either way.
“Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say ‘well done’ to the other team who defended really well.
“The battling and the willingness to fight for the club and the shirt (has been the most pleasing thing).
“We didn’t play too good at Dunston but we found a way to win.
“We played alright in the first half agaisnt Yorkshire Amateur but we were really poor in the second half but we found a way to win.
“First half against Pickering we were really poor for the first 20 minutes and deserved to go behind.
“We came out for the second half and found a way to win.
“Although we didn’t win at Cleethorpes it was a good performance and the lads rolled up their sleeves up and got stuck in and did the hard work.”
Agnew also said he is hoping to add to his squad.
“I’m always actively looking and I’m looking to possibly bring in a couple of loan signings,” he said.
“We were trying to get someone in permanently but it hasn’t worked out.
“We are a bit thin on the ground and if anyone gets injured and suspended we haven’t got much to fall back on so ideally we would like to get another player in.”