LEIGHTON Town manager Craig Wells is setting his side targets to help them try and escape danger near the foot of the league table.
Every game in the Evo-Stik League Division One Central was postponed due to frozen pitches on Saturday, including Town’s trip to high-flying Bedworth United. And Tuesday night’s home match with Uxbridge is also in doubt because of the snowfall.
But when his side do get back to action, Wells is hoping that simple in-match targets will help Town to turn around their mini-dip in form after picking up just one point out of their last three league games.
Town sit 17th in the table but do have a run of home fixtures to give them an ideal opportunity to move in the right direction. The visit of Uxbridge on Tuesday night marks the first of five Bell Close league matches in a row.
Town’s only away fixture before mid-March will be a Beds Senior Cup semi final trip to Dunstable Town. And it’s his side’s quarter final victory away at Biggleswade United that has given Wells hope of a return to form.
He said: “We gave the boys some targets to achieve during the game and it seemed to work for us.
“We told our full-backs to make at least three overlapping runs in behind and get crosses in during the 90 minutes. We told the central midfielders they had to achieve 50 completed passes, our striker Ben Gallant had to have at least four shots on goal in each half, and the target for the goalkeeper and back four was to keep a clean sheet.”
Wells’ tactics obviously paid off as Town ran out 2-1 winners, and now meet Dunstable in their semi final for the right to take on either Biggleswade Town or Luton Town in the final at Kenilworth Road.
“The performance the Saturday before against Ashford Town was unacceptable,” said Wells. “But to be fair the lads responded well and deserved to win.
“With every minute that went by the pitch became even harder and harder but the players stuck to the basics and got the job done.
“We would have liked to play on Saturday – not least because going up to Bedworth on a Tuesday night now is a logistically nightmare for us, but it’s one of those things.”
Wells was particularly impressed with the performance of midfielder Sean Bishop at Biggleswade.
“It was a real man of the match display,” he said. “He has bags of skill, energy, and is a great ball player. He only made 48 out of his 50 pass completion target, but we will let him off.”
The boss made three ‘seven day approaches’ for new players last week and is hopeful of signing at least before Saturday’s home game against Aylesbury – and it’s one of their defenders that Wells is trying to recruit, Dave King.
Aylesbury United skipper Jack Wood and a striker from Division One rivals Beaconsfield are also targets for Wells.
“We’re doing things by the book and putting requests in to talk to players,” said the boss. “But we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. I think we’ll probably agree terms with one, maybe two of them.”
Wells is also looking forward to having Sam Chapman back from injury after a six-week lay-off. He damaged his ankle ligaments in a game towards the end of last year but is now back running again.
A decision regarding Tuesday night’s game against Uxbridge is expected by mid-afternoon.