Ken Charlery believes London Colney are finally getting close to a settled, full-strength squad after watching a superb team performance account for Oxhey Jets in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division.
The 3-1 win on Tuesday night snapped a run of seven defeats in eight games, the last of which was a 4-2 reverse at Hoddesdon Town on Saturday.
But even that performance carried much more promise and the Blueboys boss is looking to the future with renewed vigour.
He said: “Getting a team out in non-league is hard, especially when there is no money.
“Players have got uni, they’ve got work and we’re still a new side and are still trying to gel.
“We did really well a month ago and it just fell apart for some unknown reason.
“But this is the first week I’ve been able to work with them both Tuesday and Thursday and we changed a few things around.
“And it worked for periods on Saturday against Hoddesdon and we kept the same system against Oxhey and we played really well, especially first half.
“We’re getting towards a settled side. We still need one or two and we’ve got a couple coming to training on Thursday. Hopefully they’ll be the ones we need to just put that final seal on things.”
Tuesday’s win came courtesy of two goals from Emmanuel Hammond and one from Loren Maxwell, all in the first half.
And there could have been more after the break with Olu Quadri hitting the post, Laurence Vaughan smashing the crossbar and Zach Holding having a goal disallowed for offside. But it was the manner of the performance that was the most pleasing.
Colney were sharp, quick and invariably first to any second ball.
And all three goals came from inch-perfect crosses, an area in which the manager has been wanting to see an improvement.
He said: “The crossing is something that hasn’t been the best since we’ve been here and I’ve been getting on at them.
“But saying that we haven’t had the bodies in the box to get on the end of them.
If we get Loren and Manny [Hammond] fit and get Ronny Smurthwaite back, we’ll be a different side.
And we’ve got Kambo Smith out too. He’s a different type of striker to the other three so we’ll have them all fighting for places.”
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