Corby's confidence is high for Cleethorpes trip

Jake Bettles gets to grips with a Kidsgrove Athletic defender during Monday's 3-1 victory which saw the forward grab his first goal for Corby Town. Picture by David Tilley

The Steelmen enjoyed a welcome return to winning way at Steel Park on Monday night as they fought back from a goal down to beat Kidsgrove Athletic 3-1 with Jake Bettles grabbing his first for the club before Jordon Crawford’s brace finished the job.

That victory came on the heels of a 5-2 defeat at Lincoln United last weekend, which was the game that sparked a hectic spell for Corby with seven matches to play in the space of a fortnight.

This evening’s clash on the east coast is followed by a trip to Leek Town on Saturday before the Steelmen take on Stamford in a local derby on Monday afternoon.

It’s a busy time but caretaker-boss Steve Kinniburgh now sees it as an opportunity for his team to play with some consistency after he felt showed their standard on Monday evening.

“It’s about getting some consistency in the squad,” he said.

“We had a couple of good results and then we had three weeks off and it took us another week to get going but we came out on Monday night and ended up being where we should be.

“It shows that’s our standard but we have got to get there quicker, there can’t be one or two games after we have had a week off to get going, it has to be more consistent.

“We will go into tonight really confident, it will be a good trip up and a late night and then less than 48 hours later we will go again on Saturday.

“If we didn’t love playing football we wouldn’t be here to do it so we will go and look forward to it.”

Young goalkeeper Dan Smith has started the last two matches due to the absence of Mansfield Town loanee Sam Wilson.

The stopper has been ruled out due to a groin injury but is set to be available again this week.

The news isn’t so good for defender Paul Malone, however, as Kinniburgh confirmed he could be out for a lot longer due to a groin strain.

“Sam has had a groin injury and hasn’t been playing as a precaution from Mansfield,” Kinniburgh added.

“I spoke to them on Monday and it was touch and go for our game so hopefully we will have some good news and he will be back for tonight, if not then for Saturday.

“Molly (Malone) has a groin strain and it looks like it might be longer term with him.

“It will be a waiting game. It could be a week, it could be three weeks. We will just have to see."