CAPTAIN Ben Martin wishes City had shown their current form 16 games ago when they were right in the mix for the playoff places. A 12 game winless run has severely dented the club s playoff aspirations and City are now firmly in mid-table, 16 points adrif

CAPTAIN Ben Martin wishes City had shown their current form 16 games ago when they were right in the mix for the playoff places.

A 12 game winless run has severely dented the club's playoff aspirations and City are now firmly in mid-table, 16 points adrift of the playoffs and 13 points clear of the relegation zone.

The club has turned its form around in recent matches and captain Martin wishes that transformation had come earlier.

Speaking to The Herts Advertiser he said: "It's a shame it's now and not 16 games ago when we went 12 games without a win but it's obviously great that we've turned it around and you can see the enthusiasm and the tempo of the lads out there today; they want to do well and hopefully we can take this into the end of the season."

James Fisher and Solomon Shields have played a big part in City's revival and Martin was full of praise for the pair as well as Paul Hakim and Gary Cohen.

"I think they've done really well and you can't take it away from the front two either, putting a lot of pressure on balls coming out from the back. I think as an overall team it obviously helps if they've got a good pairing together [in midfield] but as a team we're doing things the right way, we're closing the ball down as a team. The two central midfielders have been absolutely outstanding and made the difference in the last four or five games."

The team's good form meant that Martin, who missed last Saturday's game with Team Bath with a stiff neck, had to make do with a place on the bench for Tuesday's game.

The big defender was eventually called into action in the 59th minute and he says he enjoyed the challenge of marking one of the league's most potent strikeforces in Jon Main and Danny Kedwell.

"It's hard to come off the bench especially as a centre half but obviously you're still buzzing to come on because it's the biggest game of the season.

"It's a challenge for your centre halves. You've got a guy [Main] who's scored 31 goals in 27 or so games so you're bang up for trying to keep the shots down to as little as possible. I don't think they had a shot between them so it was a great result for us as defenders it's just a shame we didn't get a win because I think we did deserve it over the 90 minutes. We put them under a lot of pressure it's just a shame we didn't really create many chances - we got into positions to create chances but we didn't finish any of them off.