We know we are in for a very difficult game at Crowborough, says Hollands & Blair boss Bryan Greenfield

HOLLANDS & BLAIR manager Bryan Greenfield says he’s expecting another tough game against title-favourites Crowborough Athletic tomorrow.

Blair are in sixth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division table, having collected 45 points from their 22 league outings.

Sean Muggeridge’s Crows are on a club record 31-match unbeaten run and are second in the table on 51 points from 21 games, a point behind leaders Ashford United, but with a game in hand after Wednesday’s trip to Beckenham Town was frozen off.

Hollands & Blair suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat away to Sevenoaks Town last time out.

“Disappointing performance in our last game against a very good Sevenoaks team,” reflected Greenfield.

“I felt that had we not conceded the goal right on half-time then it might have been a different game in the second half but it wasn’t to be.

“I maybe didn’t help the boys in the second half with the shape we played and exposed them to the counter-attack from Sevenoaks.

“However, we had conceded a third goal fairly early on at the start of the season half so we had to gamble a bit to try to get ourselves back into the game.”

Henry Muggeridge, who was burning rubber in Conference South during his spell at Tonbridge Angels, has confirmed on social media that he is returning from injury tomorrow, which will be an added bonus to his dad.

Greenfield said: “Another tough game against one of the title favourites Crowborough.  It’s a completely different team to the one they had last year as I think we beat them in all three occasions that we played against them but their league record and unbeaten run shows that they are a different side completely and are chasing promotion to the Ryman League so we know we are in for a very difficult game.

“It’s similar to the game we had against Sevenoaks recently so it is important that we learn from the game against Sevenoaks both as a management team and players.”

Hollands & Blair’s home game against Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday night was postponed an hour before kick-off due to a frozen pitch – but the players have been kept in shape at their ground at Star Meadow, Darland Avenue in Gillingham.

“Luckily, we have the 3G facility at Star Meadow so we’ve been able to train fairly regularly,” said Greenfield.

“We didn’t train over Christmas due to the close proximity of the games along with having a fairly small squad so it gave a few a rest too.

“We trained last Saturday when the Sheppey game was called off and we trained on Wednesday night after the Tunbridge Wells was called off so we are quite lucky that we have access to the facility that we do so that we can keep the boys ticking over.”

Visit Hollands & Blair’s website: www.hollandsandblair.co.uk

Crowborough Athletic  v  Hollands & Blair
Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division
Saturday 21^st January 2017
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Crowborough Community Stadium, Fermor Road, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 3DJ