Phoenix Sports manager Steve O'Boyle: I think we’ll be alright which I think in our first season, considering where we come from, is a great achievement

PHOENIX SPORTS’ manager Steve O’Boyle says he does not want to his side to suffer a losing run of games. 

The Barneshurst based outfit have conceded 15 goals in their last four games and were knocked out of The FA Cup in the Second Qualifying Round on Saturday after losing 5-3 at home to AFC Hornchurch.

The Essex side return to the Mayplace Ground tonight for a Ryman League Division One North fixture and they sit in the top five with 20 points from ten games, while Phoenix Sports are in fourteenth-place in the table on 14 points.

“Let’s see if we learn from our mistakes,” said O’Boyle, ahead of tonight’s game.

“I just want to win 1-0, let’s get back to basics and being boring and winning 1-0.  We’ve done that quite often last year and I take a few more of them this year but we’ve got to liven up.”

O’Boyle is satisfied with life in the Ryman League after their first ten games after the club’s swift rise from winning the Kent County League Division Two West title ten years ago and now playing at the highest level in the club’s history.

“We’ve done ok. I think we’re going to be ok,” he said.

“We’ve got to be realistic. We’re not going to compete for the league, we’re not going to get into the play-offs and I think we’ll be alright which I think in our first season, considering where we come from, is a great achievement.

“The budgets in this league are ridiculous. We haven’t got that sort of money but we’ve come up to a level playing top teams. 

“Tonight we’ve got to play Hornchurch here and it’s sort of a bit of a bonus game. No one’s expecting us to win the game. If we get anything from the game we’ve done well.

“We need to improve. We haven’t been used to losing that often over the last few years. It’s something that we might have to get used to a little bit and it’s what happens when you lose, it’s how you react to getting beat.

“We lost one game last year (in the Southern Counties East Football League) and when we won the Invicta we only lose two league games and one was after we won the league so the mentality’s been changed a little bit.

“When we do get beat you’ve got to be mentally strong and come back and go let’s win our next game and that’s something that we’ve got to do.  I don’t want to be getting in a run where were losing four or five on the bounce.”

Visit Phoenix Sports’ website:  www.phoenixsportsfc.com

Phoenix Sports  v  AFC Hornchurch
Ryman League Division One North
Tuesday 29^th September 2015
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Mayplace Road Ground, Mayplace Road East, Barnehurst, Kent DA7 6JT