Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Steve Lenthall says Penistone Church have made a good start to the campaign but that said it is tinged with a case of ‘what might have been’.
Church are ninth with 21 points – only five points from second place and Lenthall is pleased.
“Beating Eccleshill 6-0 has been one of the highlights since taking over (last year),” Lenthall told Non League Yorkshire.
“That was a great result against Winterton and we have had some decent victories but we’ve also had some poor ones.
“We put in a poor performance against Emley.
“I thought we deserved something out of the Hallam game when we lost 2-1 but the first half wasn’t good enough.
“Going down to ten men and losing our goalkeeper against Barton was always going to make it an uphill task.
“I thought we played quite well and probably deserved something out it.
“I thought the officials were poor and they cost us two penalties but you can’t really blame them.
“We have had a good start and like I have said to the lads that it is a lot better start than what we had last year and we’re in a positive position.
“We have had a decent FA Cup and FA Vase runs and we’re still in the League Cup and Senior Cup.”
The disappointing side of it has been the defeats to Emley and Barton Town.
Victories in those games would have lifted Church to second and put them on the tails of North Ferriby.
“That’s probably one of the frustrating things,” he said.
“We set off really well and a few results have set us back.
“Thinking back, the Frickley one when we were winning half-time, is an example.
“We have had hit and miss performances in recent weeks.
“We have had good first halves and then poor seconds or poor firsts and decent seconds.
“We need to knuckle down and get 90 minute’s worth out of them.
“It was the same case against St Helens (in FA Vase) when we dominated the first 45 minutes but we didn’t get a goal from all the domination and we found ourselves 2-0 down 15 minutes into the second half through not working hard enough.
“It is something we need to address but as I said to the players and fans, we’re still in a positive position.
“We’re ninth in the league with games-in-hand and we’re not a million miles away.”
Penistone can close the gap on leaders Ferriby to seven points if they can pull off a victory in Hull tomorrow.
Both sides are wounded animals.
Ferriby lost 3-2 at home to ten man Maltby Main last week, despite winning 2-0 at half-time.
Church were beaten at lower league FC St Helens in the FA Vase.
“I think both teams will look at it and think they need a reaction,” he said.
“Ferriby will definitely be wanting a reaction, especially after losing after being 2-0 up against ten men.
“They will be wanting a reaction to get back to winning ways and it is the same for us from St Helens.
“We want a reaction from the second half performance.
“We’ll have a game-plan to try and get on top of Ferriby and hopefully their chins will be down a little bit and we can start the game well.
“We’re going there to hopefully win the game but I think a draw or win there would be classed as a positive result.
“Most teams will go there and find it difficult to win games.
“You have to give credit to Maltby for going there and winning the game with ten men.”
It remains unclear how long injured striker Kieran Ryan will be out of action for.
Ryan was badly injured in the defeat at Barton two weeks ago.
“He got a bad knock on his sciatic nerve which crippled him,” he said.
“He was in hospital for a week. He’s now back at home and he’s resting.
“I spoke to Kieran the other day to ask him how he was getting on and he seems a lot more positive.
“He’s still in pain but he’s hoping to get down to watch us against Garforth a week on Saturday which will be nice.
“We haven’t got a timescale on when he’ll be back playing.
“It is a quite rare injury from what the physio said.
“It is bad but it looked worse than it probably was because we thought he had broken something in his back.
“It paralysed him so it was a nasty injury and I don’t think it is a common thing.
“Everyone knows what Kieran Ryan is like, he’s a strong lad and a battler so he doesn’t go down easy so we knew when he went down we knew it was something quite serious.”
Ryan’s absence leaves a void in their attack but Lenthall feels they are covered up-top.
However, he does says he intends to strengthen the squad,
“We have got a couple of players we have our eye on,” he said.
“We have just signed Maasai Dearlove from Sheffield Club on a dual registration.
“We have a good relationship with Ryan Cresswell and Jamie Yates there.
“Maasai is doing well at the minute.
“We have Brad Kemp who we could bring in (from the reserves).
“Alfie Broughton has gone back with the Reserves at the minute so we’re alright on that front.
“If we can get one of the players we have been looking at then it will bolster our squad to a good strength.”