Gary Allanson believes Bridlington Town are hard to beat again after an excellent start to the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division season
Gary Allanson believes Bridlington Town have their “hard to beat” tag back after an excellent start to the season for his young charges.
Brid are sixth in the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division and have only lost once in the league so Allanson is happy with the momentum his team has.
But they can’t keep it going for eight more days as Bridlington have a free Saturday because their home game with Parkgate was called off earlier this week.
The Evo Stik League arranged for Scarborough to host Ossett Town last week, but failed to tell the NCEL and the Seadogs didn’t even tell their landlords until Sunday morning.
Bridlington will return to action at Retford United next week and Allanson, whose side drew 1-1 at Garforth in midweek, told Non League Yorkshire: “It’s work in progress, but we’re coming together as a group.
“The thing is when you look at when we went to Garforth last season, we got battered 5-2 and it could have been a lot more.
“You look at last season to where we are now. I think there is only four players left from last season.
“We have a lot of young players and it is gradual work in progress.
“The players we have are the ones we pinpointed and wanted to bring to Bridlington to take the club forward.
“We’re hard to beat again and that’s down to our work ethic.
“Against Garforth even though we did draw and maybe we were lucky to get a draw, but at least we battled it out.
“We lost the hard to beat tag last season and the problems were the players. We had too many over-experienced players and they went through the motions.
“They had been at this level for a long time and they were thinking they could just turn and win games.
“Wtih Bridlington Town and the reputation we have, every team wants to beat us.
“From the end of last season, we made a constant effort to say we are going to changes things and we have done and we’re getting there.
“The players are buying into the work ethic. If you get the work ethic and you use that as your foundation and structure then the quality will come through.”
Allanson found out on Monday that he and his players would have ten days off after the game at Garforth.
Bridlington chairman Peter Smurthwaite said the Evo Stik had shown a “total lack of respect”.
Allanson decided to train last night and leave tomorrow completely free for his players, but he admits that he is unhappy with the situation.
“It is difficult, but it is our ground and that’s the frustrating thing,” he said.
“When there is a fixture there already arranged, how can they just come in and say: ‘right we’re going to un-arrange it and say you’re not playing’?
“I understand that the Evo Stik have priority because they are the most senior league, but it is the way it has been done that is frustrating.
“I think Pete as the chairman of the club has put in the statement how he feels and rightly so. We back him 100%.
“It disrupted my plans massively because you have players in mind in terms of who you want to bring in.
“You say we can rest ‘x, y and z’ because we need to rotate the squad.”