FELIXSTOWE & Walton United manager Kev O’Donnell returns to former club Thetford Town tomorrow fully focused on winning three Thurow Nunn League Premier Division points.

O’Donnell was assistant manager to Mark Scott at newly-promoted Thetford prior to taking over the reins at the Goldstar Ground in mid-October.

And as he returns to the Recreation Ground for the first time since leaving, O’Donnell recalled the strange scenario surrounding Thetford’s 2-0 win at Felixstowe earlier in the season.

O’Donnell said: “My last game with Thetford was against Felixstowe – at that stage I had applied for the job – and I knew I was potentially taking three points from my new club!

“Now I will be looking to take three points from my old club. I had a great working relationship with Mark and also with the fans, but I will be 100 per cent focused on getting three points on Saturday.”

The Seasiders are sixth-from-bottom of the Premier Division table – one place above tomorrow’s opponents, but there is a nine-point gap between the two teams and Felixstowe have five games in hand.

O’Donnell, therefore, looks well on the way to achieving the twin targets he set himself upon taking the job.

“I always said when I joined that my two aims were for us to secure our status in the Premier Division and to finish higher than Thetford Town,” he said.

Felixstowe travel to Thetford fresh from a 2-0 win at home to Diss Town on Tuesday, which saw an end to a mini-slump of three successive losses.

The last two of those came in the wake of the club’s expulsion from the John Banks Suffolk Premier Cup, which was confirmed the day before the 3-1 reverse at Haverhill Rovers.

O’Donnell admitted: “I am sure it didn’t help. We had hoped to speak to the players face-to-face, but after the result of the hearing was released earlier that day I had to contact them on the Friday night instead.

“It probably impacted on our preparation for the following day’s game, but we made it clear to them to concentrate on the game.

“However, Haverhill were better than us and wanted it more – they were quicker and stronger – although we did have suspensions and injuries.

“The poor weather and postponements meant that our suspensions all came at the same time.

“We had seven unavailable which meant we only had two players on the bench against Stanway Rovers last Saturday. The squad had been left very depleted and we had not had any good quality training.

“We lost to a 93rd minute goal on Saturday and were looking for a reaction on Tuesday night, when we had more or less a full squad available.

“I have said it is the squad which will get us to the targets we have set and we upped our level to get the three points.

“We now have a run of games against teams in and around us in the league. People will expect us to win those games, but those teams will be just as hard to beat as the likes of Wisbech.”