No easy ride for Puritans, Ford warns supporters

The Puritans entertain Needham Market in Saturday’s BetVictor Southern League clash before taking on Stratford Town on Boxing Day.

Both clubs sit well below third-placed United in the Premier Central table but Ford said: “If anyone thinks we’re going into a run of easy games they are in cloud cuckoo land.

“In this division every side is capable of beating each other, we’ve had to work really hard to beat teams near the bottom. Needham Market beat Tamworth in the next game after we lost to them.”

Claudio Dias is the only doubt after he missed Saturday’s trip to Coalville, following the injury he picked up at Rushall Olympic. But Craig Fasanmade and Morgan Roberts have extended their loan spells with the club for another month.

Ford said: “We’ve got Morgan for another month although he’s on a 24-hour recall from Northampton Town, I looked at keeping Craig until the end of the season but Oxford City didn’t want to commit to that. We’ve got a lot of important games while they’re here and both will be valuable for us during that time.”

Looking back on Saturday’s draw at Coalville Town, Ford added: “Both teams had pressure at different times in the game, we began to dominate but, as we do often, lost possession and went behind. We discussed at halftime what we needed to do to win the second half.

“We went out and were really good for 20 minutes without getting the goal but we got a very valuable point in the end. The surface was difficult for both teams, especially for a side that wants to play football.”

Entry to Saturday’s game at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium is £5.