Latest News From Jude Macdonald

New signing Billie Clarke got the only goal of Saturday’s Saffrons clash with Hassocks – which followed a 4-1 home win over East Grinstead and a 1-1 draw at Crowborough.

Town are 15th in the Isthmian south east table, 11 points above the drop zone, ahead of this Saturday’s visit to Sheppey.

We asked Macdonald about recent progress.

Jude, the Hassocks game – did you deserve the 1-0 win?

I’d say that anybody at the game (or watching the online highlights) would say that we were good value for three points, though that’s not to say we necessarily played well.

As staff we knew that this game in particular wasn’t always going to be about how well we played, it was going to be about whether we could get a result and whether we could be clinical.

The last two games (Crowborough and Hassocks) we knew that the players had to show that they could defend their box properly and turn the game into a scrap in certain moments.

Although that’s not the fashionable way to discuss the game, sometimes there are games you have to prove you can do that when needed – these were two of those.

That’s three unbeaten now, all versus Sussex sides – how important has that little run been after a sequence of defeats that preceded it?

It’s been absolutely massive, especially as they are all teams in the bottom half of the table like us.

Our record against those sides was really good last season and we knew that was one of the key things that kept us up.

If we want to stay up this season, then we know that we have to be able to pick up points against other teams around us.

The East Grinstead game was almost season-defining in some ways; coming off the back of those poor results and poor performances, to play as well as they did against some really good new signings for the opposition took real bravery and discipline.

Sheppey and Deal next up – chance of further points v teams near you in the league?

Despite some poor results this year, we always go into every game with a plan for how we can win, which we showed away at Faversham this season.

These two games will be no different and the game plan will be for how we can try to get 6 points. Both teams have had some brilliant results this season, but have had inconsistencies so we have to go there with a positive mindset and look like a team who wants to get on the front foot.

I’ve watched Deal a few times this season and we have also played them so we know the quality they possess.

Sheppey are the only team we are yet to play so it will be a little bit of the unknown, but games like this away from home are a bit of a free hit for us and we will be ready to go for it.

Any new squad news – injuries/exits/signings?

Our season has been defined by our injury/unavailability list and I think I said earlier in the year that I have never had a season like it for unavailability.

We looked like we were just getting people back vs East Grinstead and then had four players go off injured against Crowborough – three in the first half. In total v Hassocks, we had nine players unavailable.

We have signed Billie Clark on an initial month’s loan from Lewes. He made a great impact by scoring the winner on Saturday so hopefully he can continue that on Saturday afternoon. Jamal Lubanga came in for one game vs Hassocks after his release from Hastings, but he is going to play in Gibraltar.

Marcin Ruda is back from being in Poland over the Christmas and New Year and will come back into the squad for the Sheppey game.