Southern Justin pleased with what he’s seen from Farm in recent weeks

BRISTOL Manor Farm manager Will Justin points to a positive period of a helter-skelter_ campaign for his team as reasons for optimism ahead of tomorrow's important home game against Bashley.

- Simon PARKINSON

Manor Farm manager Will Justin

Justin is keeping everything crossed his injury-hit outfit can swiftly return to winning ways after seeing back-to-back 4-1 and 1-0 home victories over Malvern Town and Hartpury, respectively, followed up by Saturday's 3-0 away defeat by Sporting Club Inkberrow.

Bashley are rooted in the bottom-four relegation pack trailing 14th-spot Farm by five points, so the opportunity is there to put more daylight between themselves and a basement rival.

How Justin would love to have something akin to a fully-fit squad to pluck from, as The Creek supremo explained: “We lost no fewer than three players just before kickoff at Inkberrow on Saturday.

“Abdoulie (Tunkara) pulled out through illness followed by another main midfielder of ours, Ryan Cainey, withdrawing during the warm-up along with Ryan Crouch with recurrences of their knee and calf injuries, respectively.

“A couple of others were unavailable too, so it was always going to be a difficult afternoon. Take four or five key players of their quality out of your squad, which isn’t the biggest by any stretch, and you're going to face an uphill battle, with players playing out of position.

“It made for a disjointed performance, and to compound it our new midfielder Bailey Croome had to go off requiring stitches after an unidentified object on the pitch pierced his leg”

Nonetheless, bullish Farm boss Justin insisted: “I’m really encouraged by what I've seen from us in recent weeks. We've already achieved a double over one of the frontrunners, Malvern, and beaten a strong Hartpury side last Tuesday. Had anyone offered me at the start of the season, with a rebuilt side, where we are now in the table, I'd have snapped their hand off.