Mills wants a reaction as Corby Town head to Carlton

Gary Mills wants his Corby Town side to prove they’ve ‘got the heart’ to bounce back from Saturday’s defeat to Loughborough Dynamo.

The Steelmen’s search for more Northern Premier League Midlands points sees them head to Carlton Town on Saturday (KO 3pm).

Now the manager wants a response from his side following a 3-0 home reverse.

“It’s a tight little ground, and you certainly have to go there with the right mindset to get a result,” Mills said.

“It’s a good game for us as in they’re doing well and it’s a chance to show we’ve got the heart to turn this around.”

Mills admitted he was left ‘gobsmacked’ by a below-par first half performance against Dynamo.

Courey Grantham, Curtis Burrows and Kevin Da Silva Bastos netted in a 22 minute period that saw the visitors lead comfortably at the interval.

“I was gobsmacked on Saturday with the performance in the first half, we were second to everything and rolled over,” Mills added, giving his damning assessment.

“They were walking the ball into the back of the net and that hurt.

“I asked for a response and I did get better in the second half.

“There’s no hiding behind anything, we were very poor - certainly for 45 minutes.

“I asked them to do the basics second half, to try to get something out the game, to see if we could score early.

“We did have a couple of chances to do that but we lost the game after 45 minutes.

“It was not good enough and it’s got to change. We need to do a lot, lot better.”

That improved second-half performance has given the Corby boss something to build on.

And he expects more of that back to basics approach this weekend.

“My job is to make sure in training that the players go into the game at Carlton doing the basics,” he said.

“Do them well and better than the opposition.

“It’s got to be that but I’m not hiding behind anything - I’m the manager and it’s not good enough.

“If you want to climb up the table you’ve got to be consistent and we’re certainly not being consistent enough at the minute.”

Midweek results saw Carlton drop to seventh in the Northern Premier League Midlands table, but just a point behind fifth-placed Stamford.

The Steelmen are currently 12th in the standings.