Ford says his players need to raise the bar higher

The Puritans head to Needham Market for Saturday’s BetVictor Southern League clash and Ford wants them to demand more of each other. United had to be content with a solitary Premier Central point against Coalville and Ford is concerned too many points are being dropped.

Ford said: “We’re in a decent position but we all feel – players included – that we’ve dropped too many points recently.

“I’ve got one or two players at the moment who are telling me they can’t do something instead of going out there and getting on with it. Top players don’t need to be asked to do something they just go out and do it.

“We just need all the players to realise that, although we’ve made a decent start, we must strive to be better. The statistics may say that Coalville had more possession than us but when you get to 75 minutes you have to be able to see the game out.

“We gave the ball away in a dangerous area and didn’t have a chance to recover the situation. The players need to demand more of each other in those situations to stop dropping points, we have to be able to manage games better late on.”