Gee's still smiling

Rainworth MW manager Kevin Gee remains upbeat about his side's start to the season despite Saturday’s disappointing FA Trophy exit to Romulus, writes Gordon Foster.

The Wrens lost 4-1 in their last league outing at Sheffield and have dropped to fourth from bottom in the Evo-Stik NPL Division One South table while they've been involved in cup action. Gee is now focusing on their league campaign and insists the busy schedule of league fixtures they now face could propel the Wrens up the league.

Gee says he's looking for his troops to quickly get back on track with positive results from their next two home matches, Kidsgrove Athletic on Saturday and basement club Lincoln United next Tuesday, but warned it would be tough.

He said: "We now have to concentrate on the tough league campaign ahead and as the league table shows a good week playing Saturday and Tuesday could propel you six or seven places, but at the same time a bad one could drop you deeper into the bottom four. But we have a terrific squad now at the club, and a group of honest players that will continue to work hard and start to turn positive performances into positive results."

Kidsgrove have a point advantage over Rainworth in the current standings, so a win would lift the Wrens above the Staffordshire side – but Gee acknowledges that both games are big ones for the club if they are to progress.

"When you go into a new campaign you always benchmark the first ten league games as an indication of your realistic league position, so with four of those games still to go it’s just a case of taking each game as it comes and evaluating after that," he said.

"As for the cup competitions, you can never put any forecasts into your budgets, but when we sat down at the start of season we targeted £5,000 which has been achieved so that is a big plus. Obviously on reflection it could and should have been a lot more. To win games you have to create chances, which we are doing consistently, but unfortunately we are not taking them at present.

He added: "I’m sure this will come, but at the same time we have been shooting ourselves in the foot at the other end, with experienced players not concentrating in our 18-yard box.

"Saturday was a another case of a missed opportunity, as the Romulus manager [Richard Evans]confirmed after the game to me that we had created enough chances to have won the game. In fact he told me that he actually had to change their system for the first time to try to curb the dominance and chances being created. But they are in the hat and not us and I wish them all the best for the next round."