WARRINGTON Rylands are in desperate need of a “pick-me-up” when they return to action tonight.
Having won just once in their opening 11 league games, Blues are bottom of the Northern Premier League Premier Division table but can move away from that position by beating Leek Town tonight.
It is the first of three away games in the space of a week for Neil Reynolds’ side, with a trip to league leaders Macclesfield awaiting on Saturday before a visit to fellow early strugglers Matlock Town next Tuesday night.
And Reynolds has identified a key issue that he feels could be holding them back, which was in evidence again as they lost 3-1 at home to Stockton Town on Saturday.
In every one of Reynolds’ four games in charge, Blues have fallen behind – indeed, they have conceded first in 11 of their 16 games in all competitions thus far.
If they are to move forward, the Rylands boss says they have to stop thinking falling behind is “the end of the world.”
“I just think if we get our noses in front, it lifts everybody,” he said.
“Even when we scored near the end on Saturday, you could see the spring in everybody’s step. That goal made the world of difference.
“It’s not panic stations but as a group, we’ve got to learn that being 1-0 down and 2-0 down isn’t the end of the world and that we can still express ourselves.
“Of course everybody is hurting because nobody likes getting beat, but it’s the start of hopefully a very long journey with me working with that group in there.
“We’ve just got to pick them up because they are capable of playing some really good football.”
Having stormed to promotion from the NPL’s West Division last year, Leek have made a steady start to life in their new league and sit 15th in the table.
They also go into the game buoyed by picking up their first home victory of the season on Saturday by beating Blyth Spartans having lost all five of their league matches on home soil prior to that.
“We’ve got a new game on Tuesday night and we’ll go and try and take on Leek,” Reynolds said.
“They beat Blyth on Saturday so their tails are going to be up, but we’ve got nothing to lose and we’re not going to be downbeat.
“We’ll go there with a real belief that we can get more points on the board.
“If we can do that, it sets us up for Macclesfield on Saturday.”
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