Stone believes Doughboys in 'strong position' as they take on runaway leaders Carlton
Jake Stone says Wellingborough Town are 'in a strong position' ahead of Saturday's big showdown with Pitching-In Northern Premier League Midlands Division leaders Carlton Town at the Dog & Duck (ko 3pm).
The Doughboys go into the game off the back of a first defeat in eight games, having lost 3-1 at home to second-placed Belper Town last weekend, with Stone's side conceding twice in stoppage time at the end of the game.
That left them 10th, just three points outside the play-offs, and they now take on a Carlton Town side that sits 17 points clear at the top of the table and is on a 12-match unbeaten run.
The Doughboys did pick up an excellent point when they drew 0-0 at the Nottinghamshire side when they last met in October, and Stone says he and his players can approach the weekend clash with confidence.
"We dust ourselves off and welcome Carlton on Saturday," Stone told @doughboys_wtfc. "We are in a strong position, both in terms of where we are as a team mentally and on the pitch.
"I think we will hopefully keep moving forward, and we just have to make sure the result against Belper doesn't rock us and we have to try and get back to another winning run.
"We will go at it again against Carlton and hopefully get more of a positive result.
"The boys have been doing really well and there is nothing but positivity moving on to the rest of the season."
Stone was unhappy as he felt Belper were gifted their win at the weekend by two 'soft' penalty awards by referee Jonathan Lam, and he is keen to shrug off that disappintment and get back into the action.
"I am proud of the lads over the past eight weeks, as I think we have been excellent, and we didn't deserve to lose on Saturday," said the Doughboys boss.
"We are on the up, I do believe we are going to keep moving forward, I am happy with how things are going, it's just so disappointing to come away from a game when you have lost and absolutely shouldn't have.
"For it to be decided by refereeing decisions, that is even worse, but we probably should have created more in the second half and taken it to them more to try and get that second goal ourselves, but they have barely had a shot all day and scored three goals."
Carlton will arrive at the Dog & Duck off the back of a 4-0 win over Boldmere St Michael’s last Saturday, with all of their goals coming in the second half.