Confidence is high as Steelmen prepare for a big clash with Khalsa

The Steelmen, just as manager Lee Attenborough hoped they would, have started to put together a winning run in the Northern Premier League Midlands after they followed up a 3-0 home success over Dereham Town with an impressive 5-1 success at Sutton Coldfield Town last weekend.

And then, on Wednesday night, Corby booked their spot in the semi-finals of the NFA Hillier Senior Cup with a 6-2 success over Long Buckby at Steel Park.

Corby sit in sixth place, just two points off the play-off places, going into this Saturday’s clash with Khalsa who are fourth and unbeaten away from home so far in the league.

And Attenborough insists this is just the sort of game he wants for his team.

“Khalsa are up there at the moment but these are the teams we need to be playing because the top sides aren’t losing many so when we are winning, we are keeping pace rather than making up ground,” the Steelmen boss said.

“We want to be playing teams above us to give us a chance to make some of that ground up.

“When I first took the job, I said that the league table starts to settle down around the 12 to 15 game mark.

“I don’t mind saying it now but our plan was always to try to stay in touch with the play-off sides.

“We knew we weren’t going to be at the top at this stage because we are a new side that has been built from scratch and we knew it would need tweaking as we went along.

“My thinking was to try to stay in touch with the top sides and be within shooting distance of the play-off places.

“I think you can see over the last couple of weeks that we have made progress in terms of going forward.

“We were struggling for goals in the early part of the season but things are starting to go better at that end of the pitch now.

“There’s a bit more confidence in the squad, it’s a good group with a bit of togetherness in there and we are hoping we can kick on.”