NPL Division One East
There is more to come from in-form Ossett United according to Wayne Benn.
Ahead of tonight’s mouth-watering local derby at Frickley Athletic, Ossett have raced out of the traps and are in second place – three points behind flawless Liversedge.
Ossett have won four, drawn once and lost once in the league and Benn told Non League Yorkshire: “I actually think the start could have gone better if I’m brutally honest.
“We dropped points against Brighouse and Lincoln which we shouldn’t have done.
“It is difficult to say we should be stood here saying we should be on five wins, I’m not saying that.
“I can’t say Brighouse didn’t deserve their win.
“We certainly should have won on Saturday and we massively let Lincoln off the hook.
“There is an argument that we should have a couple more points on the board.
“It has been a great start.
“I’m not surprised by it as I know what quality we have got in our dressing room.
“What we need to see is that work rate, team spirit, togetherness game-in game-out.
“The ability is there, that’s without question.
“We have got to get some consistency and try to churn out (performances like the Stockton game) week-in-week-out.”
The results have allowed Ossett to finally move in an upward trajectory for the first time in two years.
But Benn is staying grounded.
“If you strip it back and look at things, we came in mid-season in November (2019) and we had to move a lot of players out and move a lot of players in,” he said.
“Results had improved but we were down the wrong end of the table.
“We signed a lot of new players last season and we set off unbelievably well in pre-season.
“It then fell apart at the start of the season because we lost the whole back four.
“If you look for reasons there are some (for the poor form in the last two months).
“We are honest and we’ve not done ourselves justice as a management team and group of players.
“We’re starting to scratch the surface of what this team is capable of.
“It is capable of so much more but we’re not going to get carried away and we’re not going to start shouting from the roof-tops that we’re going to do x, y and z.
“All it is is a good start, that’s all it is.”
The latest victory was the impressive slaying of North East giants Stockton Town in midweek.
Talented left-back Cameron Clark had to play at centre-half due to injuries to Ross Killock and Dec McGiven.
Speaking before signing 17-year-old David Adewoju on a month’s loan from Huddersfield Town, Benn praised Clark and Jack Cowgill.
“Cammy is more than capable of filling in and timing-wise with injuries to Killer and Dec it has been brilliant to have Jack Cowgill back.
“You can see Jack’s quality, it stands out a mile.
“He is far from fully fit.
“Fair play to (Cammy and Jack).
“We have to address it and I think we have some positive news on Dec and he won’t be out as long as we thought.
“Hopefully we’ll have a bit of news (later in week) as we’re looking to add a centre-half into the squad on a month’s loan.
“That will help us.”