Steelmen face up to their toughest test so far

The Steelmen’s hectic festive schedule has produced a mixed bag of results so far as a 3-1 home success over Spalding United last weekend was followed by a disappointing 2-0 defeat at local rivals Stamford on Boxing Day.

There is, however, no rest for the wicked as the Steelmen bid to become the first team to inflict a loss on Basford, who are seemingly charging towards the Evo-Stik League South title.

Despite the defeat at Stamford, Corby remain in second spot. They are a huge 19 points behind Basford while the teams below them have games in hand.

With a big home clash with Bedworth United to come on New Year’s Day, caretaker-manager Steve Kinniburgh is relishing the big games in front of his players.

And he believes they are more than capable of offering Basford a tough test, as long as the good version of his team turns up.

“I think we have the capability to go there and produce a good performance,” he said.

“We have the ability in our dressing-room to go anywhere and win a game.

“But the one thing we also have is inexperience. It may be the case that we are still not quite experienced enough for such a high-profile game where the stakes are so high.

“But you can flip that around and say it is a good thing. The lads will be relaxed, we know it will be a good surface because it is a fairly new 4G pitch.

“This game is a massive challenge for us. The league table never lies and Basford have had an outstanding season so far.

“But we have to focus on ourselves. We will be working hard in the build up to this weekend because we are up against two sides who are right up there.

“If we turn up and play like we did for 60 minutes against Spalding then we are capable of picking up a result against anyone.

“But if we turn up and play like we did at Stamford then it will be a tough afternoon.”

The Steelmen were without on-loan frontman Leon Lobjoit for the clash at Stamford after he made his return to the club from Northampton Town last weekend while striker Sam Mulready left the club.

And Kinniburgh added: “Leon has had an illness and he was unable to get out of his bed for two or three days after the game against Spalding.

“I have spoken to him and we are just going to have to see how he is.

“Hopefully he will be in contention for the long weekend because we have two very important matches.”