Hadleigh boss Stuart Alston says his team must win ‘massive game’ against Swaffham Town

The third-bottom Brettsiders host basement club Swaffham, looking to keep in touch with the sides above them in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division.

“We must win this game,” said Alston, whose team are three points adrift of Walsham-le-Willows and Wivenhoe Town before kick-off (3pm).

“It’s a massive game, and I don’t often tell the players that, but we have got to come away from this one with three points.

“We play Ipswich Wanderers next week and I’m looking for us to pick up six points from these two games, we’ve got to win more games if we want to stay up.”

It has been a tough season for Hadleigh.

Before today’s encounter, they have lost 18 of their 29 league games, including five of seven 2017 games.

Last Saturday, Hadleigh put in a brave performance at in-form Saffron Walden Town, but still lost 1-0.

“I went to Saffron fearing the worst if I’m honest,” said Alston.

“Saffron were unbeaten in eight before facing us, and we had 11 players missing through injury, illness, and unavailability.

“We had a lot of young players playing, three of our back four were 17-years-old, but we put in an exceptional performance.

“We should have come away from the game with at least a point, but lacked composure in front of goal. Sadly for us, Saffron Walden did have one bit of composure, even though the linesman apologised to me afterwards for not raising his flag for offside.”

Alston has five of the 11 players who missed the narrow defeat back this week, including captain Garry Burdett, who has been on a two-week cruise!

“Garry will be a welcome addition back into the squad,” said Alston.

“Anthony Fox, a new striker, will also be back, and fingers crossed we continue to have more people come back into action for us.

“I know the Swaffham manager (Paul Hunt) there quite well, and the games they have been playing in have been very close lately, hopefully we have enough about us to get the three points.”