THACKLEY boss Pat McGuire is sick of his side wasting good starts in games, and hopes some new signings can help rectify that issue ahead of their home clash with Hemsworth Miners Welfare tonight.

The Dennyboys have not won yet in the Toolstation Northern Counties East League Premier Division this season, but were 1-0 ahead at Bridlington Town on September 26 before losing 3-1 and were 2-0 up early on against Maltby Main on Saturday before going down 4-2.

McGuire does not put that down to bad luck either, saying: “We capitulated from a comfortable position against Bridlington so when we were 2-0 up against Maltby, we were going some way towards rectifying that.

“On top of that, their manager said before kick-off that his keeper was missing due to Covid, so they had a striker in goal. He was brilliant actually, and pulled off three or four great saves.

“But even so, typical Thackley at the moment, we took our foot off the gas after going 2-0 up and let them back into the game, with extra unnecessary touches and wrong decisions, and it was 2-2 by half-time.

“The lads got a rollicking at the break from me but we never really came out for the second half, other than our new signing Will Alderton hitting the post.

“We gave away a sloppy penalty for them to go ahead and then they caught us on the break for their fourth.”

And McGuire has seen enough, saying: “I’ve already made some changes, and brought two lads in.

“We’ve re-signed Matt Broadley from Bridlington. He can’t play against Hemsworth, as though his Covid test came back negative, he has to self-isolate. He’ll be there for our Vase game with Harrogate Railway Athletic on Saturday though.

“We’ve also signed (former Eccleshill United man) Chris Lever. He’s a big, physical striker, which I think is what we need, as we’ve seemed a soft touch at times recently.

“Chris gives us more steel and it’s also a reminder to our players that we can bring in quality when we need to.

“We do back our players, but we’re all about progression at this club too.”

Lever may come in handy for tonight’s tricky clash with Hemsworth, with McGuire saying: “I know Wayne Benn took a few of their players with him when he went to manage Ossett.

“But they’ve still got a lot of quality, in the likes of Ben Walker, who I had with me here at Thackley.

“I played at Wakefield with their manager Luke Danville too and he’s created a good team spirit there. They have plenty of threats and a few of them seem to be enjoying their new set up.

“It would be nice to get a positive result ahead of our big FA Vase game and though we’re not panicking yet, if the season did go pop and have to be settled on points per game, we want to get some early points on the board.”

Albion Sports are the other Bradford side in NCEL action this midweek. They host Yorkshire Amateur tomorrow night.