Confident Steelmen are ready for a Trophy test

Corby Town are heading into their Buildbase FA Trophy first qualifying round clash at Redditch United in confident mood, according to joint-manager Gary Mulligan.
Jordon Crawford and Steve Diggin celebrate one of Corby Town's goals in last weekend's 3-0 win at North Leigh. Picture by Jim DarrahJordon Crawford and Steve Diggin celebrate one of Corby Town's goals in last weekend's 3-0 win at North Leigh. Picture by Jim Darrah
Jordon Crawford and Steve Diggin celebrate one of Corby Town's goals in last weekend's 3-0 win at North Leigh. Picture by Jim Darrah

The Steelmen maintained their impressive unbeaten start to the BetVictor Southern League Division One Central campaign with a 3-0 success at North Leigh last weekend, thanks to two goals from top scorer Steve Diggin and another from Jordon Crawford.

Now they are gearing up to take on higher ranked opposition in knockout action and, with Redditch currently sitting second-from-bottom in the Premier Central with just two league wins to their name, Corby will be fancying their chances.

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But Mulligan is staying cautious, especially after the Steelmen were thumped 5-0 at Step 3 side Buxton in the second qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup earlier this season.

However, he insists his players have no point to prove and he simply wants them to turn in another good performance.

“I don’t really think it’s about proving ourselves to anyone,” Mulligan said.

“It’s always good to test yourself against a team from a higher level and we have another chance to do that this weekend.

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“It will show us where we are but, ultimately, we want to go there and put in a good performance and try to get another positive result.

“I think Redditch are in a similar sort of place as Buxton were when we went there, they probably aren’t in the best of form.

“But we know if we don’t perform then it will be extremely difficult for us.

“But the lads can go in feeling confident. It was another great win for us last weekend. We showed a lot of quality and showed again that the squad has plenty of depth to it.”

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That squad will be boosted this weekend with Mulligan and Callum Westwood both being available again after suspension.

The only player who will definitely miss out is midfielder Joe Burgess who is now halfway through and four-match ban.

But Mulligan admits it will be tough to make wholesale changes having seen the Steelmen perform so well in the last couple of matches.

“We are going to have a couple back, which is good,” he added.

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“I am available again but the lads who have been in the team for the past two games have done a great job and it would be very harsh on them to make massive changes to the starting line-up.

“We will have a look at it and see what we think is best but it’s nice to be in a position where players are stepping in and performing well when others are missing.”

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