Honesty the best policy for Supermarine (From Swindon Advertiser)

Honesty the best policy for Supermarine

9:00am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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SOME brutally honest home truths may just have been the wake-up call Supermarine needed to turn their Southern League Premier Division season around.

Marine entertain high-flying Cambridge City tonight at Hunts Copse, and go into the fixture on the back of an impressive 6-2 win over fellow strugglers Clevedon Town on Tuesday night.

That result makes it just one defeat in 11 league and cup games for Mark Collier’s side as they bid to climb away from the danger zone, and the boss explained how he made his players realise exactly what dropping out of the division could mean.

“This is a very good division for the club to be in and we want to stay in it badly,” he said.

“We haven’t worked as hard as we have for a number of years just to throw it away.

“We sat down with everybody about a month ago and had a chat about our situation and what relegation would mean to the club. It was spelt out and made pretty clear what the consequences would be. Nobody wants to see that happen.

“Things have been much better recently. We have looked much better defensively and have been picking up results because of that.

“We are on our way round the corner at the moment. I’m not saying we are fully around it yet, as there’s plenty of hard work still to do, but everyone is confident we can stay up.”

Marine’s squad has been decimated by injuries in recent weeks, and while Matt Barnes (ankle) and Matt Robinson (knee) remain sidelined, they could welcome back midfield duo David Bampton and Justyn McKay from respective ankle and calf knocks this evening.

However, with a busy schedule still ahead of them, Collier knows he will have to be cautious in his team selection.

“In an ideal world we would be looking forward to welcoming a big non-league club to Hunts Copse, but with four games in seven days it takes its toll,” said the manager.

“I’ve got to be mindful of my selection for the game. I’m trying to mix and match to keep the fresh players fresh and ensure we don’t get any more injuries.

“You can’t just go with the same team because they won the other night - that won’t do us any favours.

“We have targeted certain games between now and the end of the season where we believe we can pick up points. Cambridge will be far from easy as they are pushing for the play-offs, but with the run of form we are on, you never know what might happen.”