Cinderford Town manager Alex Sykes believes that his side can be ‘very competitive’ in their derby game tonight at Thornhill Park against Slimbridge.
It will certainly be a difficult match with both teams sitting in 16th and 19th, this looks to have more behind it than just a local derby as both teams will be desperate to get themselves away from the relegation spots.
“I’ve got no worries about goals. The pleasing thing from the last few games was the clean sheets, we’ve had two clean sheets from the last three so that’s a positive.”
“Everybody will have hard luck stories about certain games and points we should’ve got that we haven’t got but actually what I have to do is look forward to the next 18 games,” said Sykes.
It won’t be an easy contest for Sykes’ men as the last time these two played each other it finished 2-1 to Cinderford, meaning Slimbridge will be looking for their revenge and with both teams not doing well in the table it will be a tight contest.
However, Cinderford can look to build up momentum with their last game being a 1-0 win against Bideford away who sit just under them in 17th.
Slimbridge’s last game was a 3-0 win against Bristol Manor Farm, so both teams will be going into this thinking that if they can outperform their rivals, they can continue to build and possibly look at pushing themselves higher in the table.
“I think the rest of us are literally scrapping for our lives, I think that includes teams at the moment that are in and around eighth and ninth place.”
Currently there’s a nine point gap between eighth and 16th but with some teams having games postponed this season, it’s not impossible for the gap to be bridged.
Despite this, the lack of goals from this Cinderford side could be a worry however Sykes made it clear there is no fear behind it and instead looked at the other positives he’s seeing from his side.
As Sykes mentioned his side has managed two clean sheets from their last three matches but took a 4-0 defeat from seventh placed Paulton Rovers in-between those two matches.
“I’m only missing my one my fullback apart from that full strength. It should be a good spectacle.”
