By Jake Hastings
Basingstoke Town picked up all three points on Saturday afternoon after beating Wimborne Town 2-1, thanks to Jack Ball’s header and D’Andre Brown’s superb free kick.
After the game, we spoke to Dan Brownlie to get his thoughts on his sides’ win, as well as looking ahead to Tuesday’s fixture and the busy festive period.
“Yeah, it’s a good one, it’s an odd feeling actually because I never feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders in those moments, but when you win, you do feel lighter.”
“The subs, I think, made an enormous difference and I think they were well-timed in the manner of the game. I thought Nnams coming on made a difference, Cookie and his energy and his calmness in situations were great.”
Before Saturday’s win, ‘Stoke were winless in their previous eight games, but picked up some important draws away at Swindon Supermarine and high-fliers Gloucester City.
Dan spoke on this: “You know, you lose a couple on the bounce, and all of a sudden it gets that feeling of, here we go again. Particularly as we hadn’t won in a while. We picked up some really good draws. I know people go, you haven’t won in a while, but there were some good draws along the way, but those stats can get twisted into any narrative you want, but those four losses are undeniable; that’s a grouping that we never wanted.”
Despite the results, Dan stated how hard everyone has been working behind the scenes:
“I appreciate fans and supporters and even neutrals have come to the ground, and they just see the 90 minutes; they don’t see the unseen hours and the boys working hard in the horrendous rain and the early meets, the late departures, the conversations and the meetings. Some led by us, some led by the boys. And sometimes your work can go unnoticed when you’re not winning.”
“And it can feel a cruel sport in that sense because sometimes with the work you put in, you don’t always get your reward. But I feel against Wimborne we did, we’ve worked hard in the set-up for this game, as we have done every other week. We’re pleased to have come out on top because it was a difficult game but, for momentum going forward, I’m hoping that it will be the catalyst for something good”.
‘Stoke were due to travel to Wales to face Merthyr Tydfil last weekend but with the game being postponed the players had a week extra to prepare. Dan commented on whether his side benefited from the week off:
“I mean, in the week preparing for it, we felt really good, you know, we knew what we were going to do. We felt confident about our set-up, but who knows if it’s a blessing. So we’ll rest, recover, we’ll enjoy the result, absolutely. But we’ve got a big game on Tuesday now.”
‘Stoke face a short trip on Tuesday night when Brownlie’s side travel to neighbours Winchester City and will be going into the game full of confidence after Saturday’s result.
“We had a meeting with the supporters beforehand and a direct question was, what’s the mood in camp? And it’s always good; sometimes you can kind of feel embarrassed about saying it after four losses, but the attitude and application and the character of the group is never questioned. There’s no denying that. Sometimes we’ve lacked a little bit of quality in both ends of the pitch, which are uncharacteristic to the players that we’ve got out there, but the trust has always been there and when you’ve got trust in the changing room, the belief can still stay through and the motivation, the togetherness all stays together. So, yes, I think it will play a big part because it is a bit of a weight off the shoulders.”
“You don’t know necessarily the weight on your shoulders until it’s lifted and then you do feel a bit lighter. So I’m hopeful that it will play some part in going into Tuesday for sure.”
With a busy schedule coming up, rotation of the squad will be key and having players back fit as we saw on Saturday with Ben Cook, Nnamdi Nwachuku returning to the squad and the likes of Robbie Gallagher and George Reid returning to full fitness.
“The break certainly helped with getting bodies back in the building and refreshed. The likes of Nnamdi, Cook, Reidy, Gallagher.”
“I mean, in terms of us moving forward, obviously, we’ve got a lot of boys coming back from injury. We had to take Reidy off the pitch, just as a precaution, the same as Ferdy, because they’re still coming back from injuries and slight knocks. Gallagher came off towards the last 15 minutes. So we’re protecting bodies, but rotation is going to be massive.
“We’re in a difficult situation that we haven’t necessarily got the depth of others and part of that comes through finance and that’s absolutely fine. It’s just something that’s a burden we have to bear, but ultimately, over the coming weeks, we’re going to need everybody. I think that’s going to be clear, particularly the three games in seven days across the Christmas period.”
“Traditionally Christmas is always an interesting period because there are such a quick turnaround in games, and it can be chaos. You look up and down the league and the amount of fixtures that go either way and it’s an unpredictable league, mainly because there’s so much quality in it. The bottom sides beat the top, the top sides beat the bottom. The middle teams can beat either end of the spectrum. So it’s a really tough league in that sense. So Christmas, because you get so many games, there’s a big potential of acquisition of points.”
“I mean, up until New Year’s Day, there’s 12 points to play for, which can either put you in relegation or back into the play-offs. So it plays a big part and hopefully we can go on a bit of a run now against some difficult teams. Winchester, Dorchester, Marlow who are fighting for their lives and then obviously Bracknell on New Year’s Day. So there’s some really big challenges in there, but we like where we are, we like what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll only get stronger over the coming weeks.”
Basingstoke Town travel to Winchester City tonight in a 7.45pm kick off.