Kevin Roberts Column

Under pressure

Every game is a must-win now because it’s so tight up there and everyone keeps winning.

There’s more pressure at the business end of the season because if you lose a game you can drop out of the play-offs. That happened to us and we didn’t even play.

All the lads from North Ferriby have got experience of fighting for a play-off place and the lads that stayed here from last season have the experience of playing at Wembley so we should have enough collective experience of playing under pressure situations to help us through it. I’ve been in a title race with Cambridge before where we ended up in the play-offs but we were guaranteed our place in them with four of five games to spare and we didn’t win any of our last few matches. But I don’t think we’ll be in that position, I think it’ll go down to the wire for us.

Keep it going

It’s very tight. We’ve done well over the last six games or so to get back into a good position and catch-up before the important part of the season kicks in. We need to be in good form now and get ourselves in the best position we can. It is a bit frustrating that we could have more points but we had an entirely new squad this summer so it’s going to take time to gel.

We have started to click, everyone knows each other better now. We’ve played 30-odd games together, which isn’t actually that many, but we have to prove that we’re clicking as a squad now.

Welcome back Browny

It’s really difficult coming back after being out for that length of time, but I think his adrenaline has got him through these first games back.

He’s been a bit fortunate that we’ve had no midweek games so he’s had a full week to recover after playing. He’s a credit to himself the shape he’s come back in. He’s a big lad so it’s more difficult to come back fit but he made sure he was in really good shape so that he was ready when he was called upon.

After the second operation where he needed a clear up of the injury, which kept him out for another two months, that was probably his toughest time because he’d been so close to coming back.

But you know what you’re going to get from him, he’s a tough centre-back. But he’s also underrated on the ball, he’s a good passer, which is a good asset to have. When he kicks it long it doesn’t look like he’s just punting it upfield, he’s got good quality.