‘We were poor in final third’ says Sleaford Town coach after draw

The draw means the Greens are five points behind Loughborough going into the game at Pinchbeck United on Wednesday night (21st), but the leaders have a game in hand having not played last weekend thanks to a frozen pitch – Sleaford’s match one of only two to go ahead thanks to it being played on an artificial surface.

And assistant manager Louis Bland felt that whilst the result was ultimately disappointing, it was nevertheless still a worthy point.

He told the club’s social media channels after the game: “It’s disappointing as we didn’t create enough chances despite getting into some good areas in the final third. We just lacked that bit of quality with the final cross or pass and it wasn’t good enough today as we haven’t scored.

"We had to make some enforced changes due to injuries and unavailability but that was all from when we played Loughborough because we did really well in that game.

"But in the end our attacking play in the final third was horrendous and that applies to the whole team, not just the attackers, as we didn’t even get any real chances from set pieces despite the kind of dangerous players we have in the team in those situations.

"We now go to Pinchbeck on Wednesday night and have to be better than that and need to create more.

"Defensively [at Eastwood] we were OK but it doesn’t matter what you do at that end if you can’t do enough at the other end with the players we’ve got in this team.”

Following Wednesday’s game at Pinchbeck, Sleaford then have a break from action until January 7 when they will go to Sherwood Colliery, that game being the first of six in 21 days during January as it is followed by a game at Deeping Rangers on January 10, a home game with Leicester Nirvana on the 14th, a trip to Wisbech Town a week later and then the visit of local rivals Boston Town on January 28.