Skegness Town boss Chris Rawlinson keen to make Vertigo Stadium a fortress

Chris Rawlinson (second from right) wants to see Skegness's good home form continue.

The Lilywhites were at Deeping Rangers on Tuesday night, after this week’s Standard went to press, but now prepare for a run of games they hope will see not only a continuation of their unbeaten home record in the league so far since Rawlinson took over from Nathan Collins last month, but also progress in two cup competitions.

They first welcome Oadby in the League Cup this weekend, before league games against Belper United and Newark & Sherwood United and then an FA Vase tie with Quorn.

Rawlinson said: “We’ve done really well at home since I took over, being unbeaten there in both the league and FA Vase.

"I’m really keen for us to make the Vertigo a fortress and that can in turn help our form overall improve too.”

Rawlinson says he’s been happy with the progress made on and off the pitch at the club since stepping up from being Collins’ assistant into the hot seat.

He said: “It’s always a difficult situation when a manager leaves but I completely understood why Nathan did so given how much travelling was involved for him.

"I was happy to believe in the squad he’d assembled and still do. There’s of course a period of transition but overall things have gone well, also bearing in mind we’ve had a lot of injuries to contend with and players being unavailable.

"Expectations haven’t really changed in that we continue to try and establish ourselves at this level. We have an adequate budget but we have to be realistic, especially as I believe the league has increased in strength.

"Our player pool is perhaps a bit more limited too given where we are geographically but I think there are enough good players in the local area to give us the basis of a really competitive squad.”

Last weekend saw Skegness beaten 2-1 at leaders Melton Town, with Rawlinson adding: “We knew what to expect from them given their quality and the 4G pitch but got ourselves in front, only to then concede two scruffy goals from our perspective.

"We had a couple of good chances to level things up but perhaps need a bit of luck here and there.”