Poppies boss Glover urges players to ‘pull the fans with us’

The Poppies head into the clash at Latimer Park on the back of two heavy defeats having lost 6-1 at King’s Lynn Town in the third qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup before they were thumped 5-0 at Scarborough on their return to Vanarama National League North duty last weekend.

It’s been a long two weeks for Glover and his team since they stunned league leaders King’s Lynn with a 1-0 victory at Latimer Park.

Since then, the squad has been decimated by injuries and last Saturday’s defeat saw them drop back into the bottom three of the table.

But Glover insists the performance and atmosphere of that Tuesday night against King’s Lynn is what his players must look to replicate.

“We had a great fans’ forum last week and then we rolled into the Scarborough game and it was really disappointing for the people who went up there,” the Poppies boss said.

“A lot of people came up to me after the forum and they appreciate what we are trying to do and where we’re at.

“But then it was unacceptable for us to go down in the manner we did at Scarborough.

“The fans have been great, and I mean that.

“They have stuck with us and I did say to the lads after the King’s Lynn game that the energy the fans gave us during that game was really appreciated and the way you tap into that is with effort.

“On Saturday, we are just asking the players to go out with the same attitude they did that night.

“We’re going to run our socks off and have a good go and if we do that, I know we will pull the fans with us.

“There’s no shortcut to it. They will back us if that’s what we do.

“But, if we drop then the fans are entitled to have a moan.

“You could feel it against King’s Lynn, we started well and it generated an atmosphere where the fans were with us.

“That’s what we need again and that’s what we have got to do.”