The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Upbeat boss Chris Rawlinson reckons that it’s time everybody at Spalding United stopped feeling sorry for themselves.
The Tulips slipped into something of a crisis last week when the club cut the weekly budget, forcing Rawlinson to shelve any plans of a promotion push in Evo-Stik NPL First Division South.
There was no mass player exodus, however, with the players all agreeing reduced terms to stay at the Sir Halley and turning in a decent showing at table-topping Basford United last weekend.
Rawlinson admits that his players aren’t overly enamoured with the situation and concedes that he’s received one seven-day approach for a member of his squad.
But he wants to draw a line under the budget cut and get back to winning football matches.
“Fair play to the lads,” said Rawlinson. “They all turned up on what I can only describe as new deals with the club.
“Are they happy with those new deals? I can’t honestly say yes.
“But it’s testament to them and the togetherness they have that they turned up on Saturday and put in a good performance.
“I still can’t say with 100 per cent certainty that all of the lads will stay. Some of them will get cherry-picked, of course they will.
“We’re now vulnerable to other teams offering more money and preying on our situation.
“But it’s time that we all stopped feeling sorry for ourselves at the club.
“We all need to look forward and concentrate on getting some points on the board and being competitive.
“I can’t say that, even if we keep this squad, we’re going for the play-offs. It’d be silly of me, as we’ve only got four contracted players – the rest could leave at the drop of a hat.
“But the squad in its current form is very capable of getting results.
“We gave a very good Basford side a decent game on Saturday and, if we hadn’t got a bit over-excited looking for a goal, we might have taken something.
“It’s all about making sure we win as many games as we lose now.”
Next up for Rawlinson’s Tulips is a home test against lowly Gresley.
The Moatmen haven’t won away from home all season in the league – but did defeat the Tulips at the Sir Halley in the Integro League Cup earlier in the campaign, albeit on penalties.
Rawlinson fielded an inexperienced side that night and hopes to exact revenge in Saturday’s home fixture (3pm).
He added: “I think you’ll see two very different sides to the cup game. We finished that game with six under-21s on the field, so hopefully we’ll be stronger this time around.
“At this moment in time, I expect to have the same squad that travelled to Basford available. If that’s the case, we certainly have a great chance of beating Gresley – which would set us up nicely for what is a run of winnable games.”
