A RECENT shift in momentum has seen Brighouse Town completely turn its season around.
After sitting just above the relegation zone two weeks ago, three victories in the space of a week have seen Vill Powell’s side rise to 11th in the Northern Premier League Division One East.
Key victories against Shildon, and both Grimsby Borough and Ossett United over Easter weekend, means that Town’s safety is now secured following a difficult campaign.
Discussing his side’s turn in fortunes, Powell said: “Of course, I’m delighted, but we did think this kind of run might come a bit earlier because we’ve certainly threatened it. We just haven’t had that consistency in performance and luck at times that you sometimes need, but we’ve started to show that in the last few games. You can sometimes accept defeats like the Worksop one (6-0 loss) because they’re miles ahead of everyone else in the league and have got a different level of quality to others, but everyone else is on an even keel. Resilience was key for us and we’ve now shown that we can be resilient particularly in these last few games.”
Powell added: “We’ve had to learn a few harsh lessons along the way, and that gave me the opportunity to tinker with a few things for example with the squad. Overall, it’s worked, and the players have responded to it. On paper, we are in the top five sides in the division for goals scored, but we are the second worst team in terms of conceding goals. That tells its own story and that comes from a very poor middle section of the season – where we didn’t show any kind of resilience in defence or as a team whether it was trying to keep a clean sheet or not letting one goal turn into three or four. We needed to address that aspect of our performance and we’ve done that well because we’ve shown resilience and hard work on the field.”
Despite Brighouse’s precarious position towards the foot of the table in recent weeks, Powell admitted that the camp always remained calm.
He said: “It’s easy to say now we’ve achieved safety, but to be honest, although our league position would suggest otherwise, we felt like we were in a false position and I don’t think we truly believed that we were in danger of being relegated. I’ve been in dressing rooms before where it’s difficult to put a finger on what is going wrong while wondering where the next victory or goal will come from. With the squad we’ve got, we always knew that we had quality, we knew that we could create chances and that at some point it would click for us.
“Even in the Worksop game where we lost 6-0, they created six chances and scored from every shot while we created four decent opportunities but couldn’t hit the target. It showed that we could create chances even against the best opponents. So, once we’d tightened up the defensive side of things, we knew we’d be alright. Yes, it’s a relief and it’s nice to be able to confirm our safety, but the feeling around camp was that we weren’t in trouble.”
Remarkably, after being so close to the drop zone, Brighouse now have the chance to finish in the top eight of the division, which outlines the crazy nature of non-league football.
Powell said: “We’d love to finish as high as possible. In February, with the games left we were still in with a shout of the play-offs; that’s how this league works. You take Worksop out of the league, which they will be next season, and there isn’t much between everybody else; there really isn’t. You’ve got some teams who have more resources and money to spend on players, but other than that the quality remains fairly level throughout the division.
“We will continue to work hard in the remaining three league games and then we’ll see where we are come the end of the season. Ideally, we want to be finishing in the top ten now, for sure.”
Brighouse will be looking to make it four wins on the bounce with another victory at home to Consett today (3:00 pm).
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