Hebburn Town boss sets top ten aim ahead of Ilkeston Town clash

Daniel Moore has admitted Hebburn Town have one eye on preparations for next season - but stressed he is keen to secure a top ten finish to round off a historic season on a positive note.

The Hornets have struggled for form during the second half of their first ever season in the Northern Premier League Premier Division and last weekend’s 5-1 defeat at Ashton United means Moore’s men have won just one of their last ten games. The heavy loss at Hurst Cross brought a frustrated response from the former Shildon boss as his side wasted an early lead given to them by top goalscorer Amar Purewal.

Their attempts to bounce back and start what they will hope will be a much-improved end to the season will start in Saturday’s home game against Ilkeston Town - and Moore has admitted some of his players haven’t stepped up in recent weeks.

After naming Michael Turner in the his starting eleven for last weekend’s defeat after he returned from a ban, Moore said: “He (Turner) hasn’t played for a good month or so and that’s where we are at. We were desperate to get Micky back to put him straight back in. Ideally, we’d have one or two who could come in and do a job but we haven’t and the players that have come in haven’t got the results we needed. So we have to prepare for the next game but we’ve also got an eye on next year and some of the players, unfortunately, aren’t going to be here because the last three or four games.

“When you’re watching teams like Ashton and Guiseley, they’ve got good guile about them, they’re not the most entertaining sides but they look to commit bodies forward and look to score goals, very similar to us a couple of months ago. They have that quality to punish us so the players need to regroup for a massive game on Saturday. I’ve said top ten, with five games left, there’s no reason we can’t win all five. Top ten has got to be the aim for us and I still think that’s a good season for us.”

The likes of Dan Savage, Joao Gomes and Liam Murray could be handed recalls to the Hornets starting eleven after appearing from the bench in the defeat at Ashton.

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