Lewis Thorogood is refusing to push the panic button after seeing Pinchbeck United fall into the Uhlsport UCL Premier Division’s relegation zone.
The Knights dropped into the bottom two for the first time this season after losing 2-0 at relegation rivals Quorn on Saturday.
And, with third-placed Anstey Nomads the visitors to the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field on Saturday (3pm), Thorogood – whose side haven’t won since September – could be forgiven for being down in the dumps.
However, the former Spalding United chief knows that there is still a long way to go this season and feels his side are on the brink of coming good.
Indeed, Thorogood reckons that his charges were very unfortunate to lose the reverse fixture 4-1 at the start of last month.
“I can’t deny that it feels like a step back to fall into the relegation zone again,” he said. “But there’s plenty of football to be played.
“Nobody wants to be in the bottom two, but there’s a group of five teams – us, Selston, Quorn, Sleaford and Newark – who are kind of in our own mini-league and not that far apart.
“We’ve got more favourable fixtures after Anstey and if we can cut a bit of naivety out of our game, I can see us picking up points.
“Obviously you look back at drawing against the likes of Holbeach and losing tight games and think you could be higher, but we’re certainly in the mix.
“As for Anstey, they’re obviously one of the better sides in the league. Are they the best side we’ve played? Perhaps not, but they’re doing very well.
“I think 4-1 was a very harsh score on us in the first meeting and we certainly caused them problems.
“If we can turn up and play like I know we can, we’ll cause them problems.”
After playing Anstey, the Knights have games against Selston, Deeping Rangers and Holbeach United on the horizon – all of who are in the bottom half.
