Dave Anderson is urging his Barton Town Old Boys side to raise their game for the visit of Tadcaster
Barton Town Old Boys manager Dave Anderson has urged his side to raise their game for tomorrow’s Toolstation NCEL Premier Divison clash with promotion-chasing Tadcaster Albion.
Last season’s runners-up Barton face a huge home test against a Tadcaster side that is reeling from their FA Vase quarter-final exit to Highworth Town.
Tadcaster want to put that defeat behind them and reignite their title charge after losing top spot to Worksop Town on Saturday.
Anderson, whose side drew 1-1 with Garforth on Saturday, told Non League Yorkshire: “We had one mind on that game out there (against Garforth).
“But it doesn’t really mean anything really. We’ve got to go out and if we play like we did against Garforth, we’ll get well beaten by Tadcaster so we’re going to have to raise our game quite considerably to get a result.
“From the start of the season the goal was always to finish top six and that’s where we want to be.
“We had a tremendous last season last season in finishing runners-up, but we cannot compete with the likes of Tadaster, we cannot compete with Shaw Lane and we are massively over-achieving for a club with limited resources.
The Swans have managed to hit he form running after over a month without a game due to postponements, with four wins on the bounce before a narrow defeat to Staveley Miners Welfare and then the draw against Garforth.
Anderson hailed his sides return to form and said: “They lads have done terrifically well.
“I think back to six games ago. We said we wanted to be have about 10 points from the next six, and we’ve got about 13 now, so we’re ahead of schedule.
“As you can see the games are coming thick and fast and it’s important that we freshen things up now.
“The lads have been terrific and they’ve trained very hard and we’ve come back (from the postponements).
“But this league is quite merciless because you’re playing twice a week until the end of the season and teams are going to find it very difficult to have two games a week and in some cases three.
“We just plod on, obviously we’ve got a big game against Tadcaster, so we’ll obviously look forward to that.”
Anderson’s men were looking to better their second place finish last season, but they have fallen short of their aims.
The Barton chief, whose club did not apply for promotion, is just disappointed that there is not a further promotion place which would keep his club’s season alive.
“The frustrating thing is, and I’ve echoed what other managers have been saying, is that with only one team going up it doesn’t lend itself to real football,” he added.
“A lot of teams now will cut budgets and not put teams out and save themselves for next year, so the quicker we can get play-offs into this league the better, then you’ll get teams playing right to the end of the season.
“It was very disappointing not to apply for promotion, but obviously it didn’t really mean anything in the end with only one team going up.
“I think we need one or two additions.
“But as we start planning for next season with a couple of new faces I think we can actually go one step further.
“Obviously we’ve got all the top five in the coming weeks so we can decide who wins the league, and it will give us a good indication to see how far we are and what we need to do to get in the top two next season.”