Boss Stone not getting carried away despite Doughboys' perfect start to the season

The Doughboys made it eight wins out of eight in all competitions with an emphatic 4-1 Pitching-In Northern Premier League Midlands Division victory over St Ives Town at the Dog & Duck on Monday.

The win sees them sitting three points clear at the top of the table, and came off the back on Saturday's home 2-1 FA Trophy First Qualifying Round win over Belper Town.

Goals in the first 13 minutes from Danny Draper and George Ball had Stone's side in control against St Ives.

Ball added a second five minutes after the restart, before Draper netted his second from the penalty spot to make it 4-0 on 64 minutes.

There was a 68th-minute consolation for the visitors, but it was too little, too late, and the Doughboys can now look forward to Saturday's huge FA Cup clash with Kettering Town with real confidence.

But Stone will also ensure his players won't be getting get carried away.

"Of course, we’re really pleased with the start," said Stone.

"If you’d offered us eight wins from eight at the beginning of August, we’d obviously have taken it.

"It's good start, but that’s all it is at the moment, a good start.

"There’s a long way to go and plenty for us to improve on, so our focus is just on continuing to work hard and getting better each game."

During their eight-game winning streak, Borough have scored 24 goals and conceded just four, and that is a real plus for the manager.

"That’s probably one of the most pleasing aspects," admitted Stone.

"We’ve carried a threat going forward, but we’ve also worked extremely hard without the ball and defended well as a team.

"The goals being shared around is important too because we don’t want to be reliant on one player.

"But again, it’s only eight games and those statistics won’t count for much if we don’t keep doing the basics well."

Monday's win means the Doughboys are three points clear at the top of the Midlands Division after five matches, and although Stone is pleased to be top of the tree, he isn't reading too much into it.

"It’s nice to be up there, but the league table doesn’t mean too much to me at this stage of the season," said the Doughboys boss.

"What has been pleasing is the consistency the players have shown and the way they’ve approached every game.

"Confidence naturally comes with winning games, but we have to make sure that confidence never turns into complacency."