Harry Wheeler has said he is not looking beyond the next game – despite a fantastic start to his time in charge at Clarence Park.

The St Albans City caretaker manager has agreed to look after team affairs for the next few weeks while the search for a new manager is halted.

And following the 3-2 success at home to Maidenhead on Tuesday night, the third win in his three game tenure, his stock is rapidly on the rise.

The man himself though is playing it cool.

He said: “I would say this if I was the manager but I’ll take it game-by-game. The next game you play is the most important and the next team is the best team we’ll play all season.

“We’ll just keep going and keep getting results and maybe that’ll make [the owner’s] job a little easier. Or harder, whichever way you want to look at it.

“I’m happy but we’ll look to continue.”

He believes that having someone in charge over the busy Christmas period can only be a benefit, as will having someone the players know.

He said: “The security will help and there’s someone who believes a lot in them and trusts in them. I don’t overload them with information and trust them to go out and express themselves.

“They look more settled; they look like they can get their head down for the next few games and give it all they’ve got.

“Whether it’s me or whether it’s someone new, if they keep performing and keep winning games [the new boss] will have no choice but to keep them.

“It works in their favour if they keep pushing on and they look like they are hungry to win games and hungry to prove their ability and prove they don’t deserve to be where they are.”

And Wheeler says there is currently no problem with his role as academy coach at League Two’s Dagenham & Redbridge.

“They’re happy for me to be fair and very supportive,” he added.

“And it helps them because my experiences here, I can take there. My job there is to make sure players can adapt from youth to professional football. And so this will help by managing players and people.

“I pick up things from every single game so when I go into Dagenham I work on it. But I know that over this period they are behind me and will do anything to help.”

That next game takes City to Basingstoke Town on Saturday, the team at the bottom of the league. But Wheeler says he is sure the players won’t rest on their laurels.

He said: “We never relax and I won’t let them. We only relax when we’ve got the ball.

“If you have that licence to go and attack, they’ll want to do it again. When the other team has it, they work harder to get it back.

“All I’ve asked them to do is play. They looked a bit cagey in the first half [against Maidenhead] but they showed what they can do in the second half.

“I want them to play from the first minute.

“People complicate the game but it’s just 11 v 11. We just need to go and play and if we do that on Saturday, we’ll come away with a positive result.”