Home will be key for United to stay clear

Manager Mike Ford knows it and wants his players to focus only on what they do at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium against high-flying Biggleswade Town on Saturday.

The Puritans are back home after successive Evo-Stik League South defeats on the road. But United are a different proposition at home, having lost just once in their last ten premier division central outings.

Ford said: “Our season is like chalk and cheese, we haven’t won away since September and have only lost once at home since October.

“But that’s what people remember, the losses away from home and our inability to keep a clean sheet.

“I have to set the team up differently away from home, I think the ambition to play good football and win away has cost us. St Ives showed no ambition at our place a few weeks ago but stayed in the game and went away with all three points.

“Perhaps that is the mentality we need next time but, at home, we’ve been very good.

“We have to isolate the two, not dwell on the away games and carry on playing like we have been at home, where we’ve been relatively successful.

“We’ve played some attacking football here, scoring lots of goals and winning games. We have to work on the other side of the game when we’re in defending situation.

“If I can relate to anything we can improve on, it has to be in general and not home or away related. I’m always looking for us to better in every game, home or away.”