That’s the hope of manager Robbie Blake as he looks to take advantage of a weekend absent of a fixture to try to better prepare his charges for vital games ahead.
Bognor lost 3-2 at home to Cray Valley PM on Saturday — Jasper Mather and Spencer Spurway netting for the home side — and also parted company with assistant manager Jamie Howell and striker Callum Barlow. He subsequently signed for Hastings United and bagged a brace on his debut in a 6-1 win over Shoreham in the Sussex Senior Cup on Tuesday. Rocks will now host United in the next round
But next up for the Nyewood Lane outfit is a home game against Cheshunt on November 2 and Blake should be able to call upon Harvey Whyte, Doug Tuck and Hayden Gale for the game.
He said: “Bringing players back in from injury will give us options and our focus is trying to eradicate the defensive errors that keep costing us goals. I can’t fault the application and work rate of the players and we need to harness that desire in our thinking when we haven’t got the ball.
“We will train on Saturday and work on our shape and also instilling in the players the importance of our next run of games given the position we find ourselves in. We will look to recruitment too but we mustn’t rush into things in terms of who we bring in.”
Blake says Barlow, brought in from Eastbourne United in the summer, wanted to play more minutes which couldn’t be guaranteed and he respected his desire to move on — and added that he is hoping to bring in a new No.2 sooner rather than later after Howell left the set-up. And Blake has also revealed that winger Hayden Vaughan has returned to parent club Aldershot Town after his loan expired.
Meanwhile, coach David Birmingham has spoken of the frustration amongst the squad at handing opponents an advantage through sloppy defending.
He said: “It’s obviously costing us and it’s something that we must put right as soon as possible. It’s not as if the boys aren’t trying and they are hurting, we all are, because of where we find ourselves. But there is a positivity in the dressing room to right these wrongs and every effort is going into being better.”
