Toolstation NCEL Division One
Leon Sewell says Hall Road Rangers have “nothing to lose” as they attempt to claim the final play-offs spot.
Brilliant form since October has propelled Hall Road from no man’s land and into ninth and six points from the top five.
“When you look at the league table for us to be where we are now is testament to the players and the committee for keeping the flag flying,” Sewell told Non League Yorkshire.
“Play-offs? It will be 100% a tough task.
“Can it be done? As it is now we’re six points off and we only have Brigg, Harrogate Railway and Retford to play from the teams above us.
“Bear in mind we have Armthorpe, Parkgate, Nostell, Ollerton, Shirebrook, Rainworth to play and they are not easy games.
“If we can break into the play-offs we have done very, very well.
“There’s no pressure on us to get into the play-offs and we have nothing to lose because no-one expects us to get in them.
“We’re doing our upmost to finish as high as we possibly can.
“Our three aims were to win the league, finish in the play-offs or as a minimum finish in the top ten.
“We’re on par to tick one of those achievements off which with limited resources, is fantastic for Hall Road.
“Testament to the committee, they could have made changes in September or October if they really wanted to.
“But they didn’t and they kept faith.”
When Sewell talks about September, he is half-referring to Hall Road’s watershed moment at Nostell Miners Welfare – their visitors to Haworth Park this afternoon.
Hall Road were hammered 5-0 by Nostell and the score-line could have been far greater.
Sewell and Dave Ricardo slowly made changes off-the-back of the defeat and Sewell explained the difference in his side that Nostell will see.
“We will be fitter, stronger and we’ll have a bit more quality in our team,” he said.
“We have added some good players and when we go back to Nostell it was the 18th September and it was a low moment.
“It was a glorious day but we had a very big thunderstorm going on above our heads.
“For us to come out the other side of that storm and perform like we have done has been absolutely spot on.
“Myself, Dave (Ricardo), Chris Burke and Matty Gray have stuck to it and everyone has bought into it.
“The changing room we have got is second to none and what we have I firmly believe you can’t buy.
“It is the strongest changing room I’ve ever had.
“The quality in there is unbelievable.
“There’s togetherness and everyone is pulling in the right direction.
“We don’t have one player who is an individual.
“We have players who are collectively prepared to work hard for one another, whether in training or match-day.”
One key aspect of Hall Road’s form is their recent away record.
Hall Road have won six on the spin on the road – the latest win being the 7-0 win at doomed Teversal.
“Testament to Teversal because in the first 15/20 minutes they had a good go,” he said.
“We knew they would because they have wanted to right the previous Saturday’s wrong (the 14-1 defeat to Brigg Town) and they have two or three tidy players.
“In the first 15/20 minutes every-time we went forward we wanted to score and our decision-making was way off the mark.
“We got a message onto the pitch pretty quickly to shorten the game up and after that we were in full flow.
“There was no stopping us but it wasn’t one-way traffic.
“Teversal had scored a goal in their last five games and for me our main focus was to keep a clean sheet.
“The clean sheet for me was better than winning 7-0.”