Title talk is banned by Town managers

The Wongers moved back to the top of the Balcan Lighting Lincolnshire League on Saturday, moving up from fourth following a vital win at Ruston Sports, who began the day in first place.

However, managers Andrew Shinn and Mickey Stones, along with assistants Steve Lovett and Nathan Rawdon, have told the squad that talk of a title is now off limits.

“We’re not talking about the league anymore, that’s what we have decided,” Shinn told The News.

“It’s out of our hands. We’re just going to take it one game at a time and see where we finish.

“We’ve agreed that, the four of us.”

Town sit locked on 23 points with Rustons and third-placed Grimsby Borough Academy.

And because their rivals both have games in hand on the Wongers, Horncastle’s management quartet believe the best approach will be to take each game at a time and hope the teams around them slip up.

“We’ve got a tough few weeks ahead of us but we just want to keep picking up points,” Shinn added.

“We don’t want to talk about the league and put pressure on the lads.

“We just want to keep playing as well as we can.

“There’s a good buzz in the squad and we’ll try to keep that going.”

Town’s victory over Rustons was vital as defeat could have seen them six points adrift of top spot.

But Shinn says a battling performance and a new 4-5-1 formation has set the standard for the remainder of the campaign.

“We blame ourselves a little bit, when you realise you stumble across a formation that’s perfect for the side, maybe we should have looked at it earlier,” he added.

“We won’t use it every game. Against some teams we feel we should attack more and go for it, but it worked.”

Town will be looking to pick up three points on Saturday when they host Wyberton.

The two sides played out a 2-2 draw at the Causeway back in November, and meetings between the two sides are often feisty affairs.

“It’ll be a battle more than a game,” Shinn added.

“But we’re looking forward to it.”

Striker Michael Harness may be in line for a return to the first team squad after scoring a hat-trick for the reserves in their 5-2 win over Woodhall Spa United on Saturday.

Kick off at The Wongwill be at 2pm.