NPL Division One East
Mike Thompson says Bridlington Town’s superb 2-2 draw at unstoppable leaders Worksop Town has given his side huge belief.
Bridlington gave Worksop a fright last week as they were on the brink of victory until their hosts equalised deep into injury-time.
“If you had given us an opportunity to take a point from the game and not travel to the ground, we would have snapped your hand off,” Thompson told Non League Yorkshire.
“I’m saying that from the point of view that our form in the few weeks (before the Worksop game) was poor).
“Our output was poor and not what we expect of the boys.
“We went to Worksop on a free hit.
“They have been on a phenomenal run of form and they look fantastic.
“It was a major free hit but it gave us an opportunity to reset and try and get back to when we were really successful in September and October when we were grinding results out.
“To go there and did what we did…I was over the moon.
“I was gutted for the boys because they deserved to win.
“Worksop put us under a lot of pressure, especially in the last 20 minutes but I think we deserved to hang on.
“It was just one attack too many and they equalised with pretty much the last kick of the game.
“I told the boys that it wasn’t just a point against Worksop Town, it was a point against the rest of the league because of their run and the fact they haven’t dropped a point since drawing with us back in August.
“They have dropped seven points all season and four have been against us.
“We couldn’t be prouder and it has reaffirmed that we can compete with the best teams in the league.
“Now it is a matter of making sure we do it week-in-week-out.
“We have had the reset and the boys know the standards we have expect and they have to maintain that because in the mid-table positions it is as tight as hell.
“Worksop had won 11 games on the bounce at home and their gaffer was telling us we were the best team they had played at their place all season.
“We have to look at the positives of that.
“We have to make sure our standards don’t drop when we play teams in-and-around us or below us.
“If we do keep those standards we have every opportunity to look up rather than down.
“I don’t think we are too far away from where I expected us to be at this stage of the season.
“I do think it is tighter than I thought it would be.
“There’s only Tadcaster who are cut adrift at the moment.
“One or two results either way can have you moving three or four places up or down the league.”
Bridlington are currently 14th with 26 points.
They are ahead of where they were at this stage last year and Thompson admits his squad have surprised many.
“It was a big motivating factor that when I took over the club a lot of people looked at the players and the experience walking out of the door and told us that we wouldn’t get into double figure points,” he said.
“We built the squad well and got the mentality right.
“We have proved that we are good enough to compete.
“Some of the lads weren’t given chances last season.
“We have Lewis Dennison scoring goals like no tomorrow.
“He’s our out-and-out number nine and he wasn’t really given a chance to play that role last season.
“We have proven a lot of people wrong but it is January.
“We don’t rest on anything.
“Yes, I think we have improved on last year. I think that’s easy to see but it doesn’t mean anything at the moment.”
Thompson signed Rotherham United midfielder Mackenzie Warne on loan earlier this week.
The 19-year-old, son of former Millers boss and currently Derby County chief Paul, will stay with Brid for the rest of the season.