Hebburn Town FC assistant wants squad effort ahead of Buxton test
Hebburn Town visit Naitonal League North rivals Buxton on Saturday afternoon.
Hebburn Town FC are ‘well on their way’ to their points target for their first 12 games as a National League North club - but assistant manager Mark Hudson insisted the Hornets are keeping their feet firmly on the ground.
Daniel Moore’s side have made an impressive start to their first ever season in step two of the non-league pyramid after securing seven points from home games with Southport and Worksop Town and last weekend’s trip to Brackley Town. A late penalty from on-loan Hartlepool United striker Josh Donaldson was enough to see off Worksop at the Trustmark Group Stadium on Tuesday night and that ensured the Hornets will travel to Buxton on Saturday in good heart.
However, there was a warning from their assistant manager as he described the National League North as ‘a different animal’ ahead of the trip to the Peak District.
He told The Gazette: “We won’t get carried away at all an the players are the ones that are guiding that. We set a points tally for the first 12 games and we are well on our way towards that. We have gone 12 games, 12 games, 12 games, and then see where we are after those 36 games. If we are safe, we have then got ten games to push on and see where we end up in the table. If not, we see what we have to do to be safe. It’s all about being safe in this league, it’s all about sustaining our place in the league and that’s our first aim for the season.
“This league is a different animal and we’ve told the lads they will all be needed during the season. We can’t do what we did last year and just hammer the first eleven because we did that a lot last season and we got away with it a bit. We will have to make changes because there are a lot more games and there’s more intensity.”
The Hornets will assess defender Joe Oliver before making a decision on their starting eleven after he picked up a knock in the midweek win against Worksop.