Colney Heath's players have set the benchmark now in terms of the performance expected says manager Ant Burns after picking up a deserved victory over St Neots Town.

The 1-0 win, courtesy of a second-half penalty by Kwon Hepburn, was only their second in Division One Central of the Southern League in 20 attempts.

But while it still leaves them bottom, the manner of the performance has left the new boss more confident about the future.

"It’s been coming," said a relieved but delighted Burns. "We’ve talked about setting standards each week and getting better. There is still room for improvement but it all came together.

"We’ll look back on this as the standard we need to keep.

"Even last week when we played Berko [lost 1-0 to the then league leaders], they were saying how were we bottom of the table as we played really well.

"We knew it was happening, we just need to get the win and get the monkey off our back a little bit.

"Now we have, hopefully we’ll see even better performances from these guys.

"There isn’t an easy game, especially when you are bottom of the table, but I think a few teams will sit up and take notice of us now, especially after the last couple of results.

"I’m really pleased for the team and everyone at the club. There have been a lot of changes over the last two months, on and off the field."

Herts Advertiser: Danny Fitzgerald is one of a handful of players from the start of the season to still be at Colney Heath.Danny Fitzgerald is one of a handful of players from the start of the season to still be at Colney Heath. (Image: ©2020 Danny Loo Photography - all rights reserved+44 7880551692)

Only four players who started at the Recreation Ground began the season with the Magpies but the new look squad is gelling well with the management team playing to their strengths.

He said: "The first couple of weeks was just phone call after phone call as I tried to get lads in.

"We’ve had limited time on the training pitch so we have to take each week as it comes but we’ve got a good bunch now.

"With the pace we’ve got, we can set up as a counter-attacking side.

"Maybe over time that will change and if it wasn’t for such a sticky pitch, there was a lot of mud, maybe we would have scored more.

"Even down to 10 men in the second half, we created chances down the hill and we should have probably had three or four.

"I don’t think that would have flattered us."