Graham Coughlan was delighted to have landed a precious three points this afternoon, in a very hard fought encounter with promotion rivals Darlington. Richard Walker's predatory strike in the opening five minutes was enough to win the game and move Town back into the play-off places, leapfrogging the Quakers in the process.
"We needed that win because it's been a pretty bad week for us even though we haven't played. We'd dropped out of the play-off places because of results in midweek so it was a massive result for us," he said.
"We've said all along that our home form will have a big bearing on if we're going to be successful or not. What it's all about now is tidying up our away performances and getting that win which will get that monkey off our backs. We'll go on and be a force once we get that win."
They get a decent chance to rid themselves of the hoodoo that has been plagiarising the club for more than 13 months now - with just a solitary victory in the league on their travels. It comes at Underhill against Barnet on Tuesday evening.
"The club is evolving and the manager's got a really tough job on his hands. Rome wasn't built in day and we're all very well aware of that, but as a group of players we are all anxious to make sure we are successful. That's our aim but I will be quite honest and say that we've definitely under performed away from home. We're looking to put things right but I don't know what it is because we've tried a hundred and one things already to change it. It comes down to work rate, action and commitment and you need to go away from home, roll your sleeves up and dig deep. We've been playing alright away from home and we're hopeful of sorting things out sooner rather than later. Perhaps just nicking a goal and going on to get that win."
No-one could ever doubt the commitment of the summer signing, with the big Irishman a colossus today alongside Kelvin Langmead at the heart of the back-four. The team have always looked like scoring goals even though they may have dried up a little. If we did our jobs right at the back, the chances of victory would be considerably increased.
"We've obviously missed the big man (Grant Holt) up front again today. But it was nice to see Walks step up to the plate and get another goal. We just need for others to start contributing a few goals as well and every one is conscious of that in the dressing room. Someone else has to step up and take the bull by the horns and hopefully with Walks now having scored two in two, he's on a nice little roll. I thought Nick Chadwick did a good job for us when he came on, so hopefully we'll find the right blend and score enough goals to take us onto promotion."
I asked for Coughlan's views on the sending-off of Ricky Ravenhill late on, that sparked off a melee in the centre of the field, and saw two Town players receive yellows - one of them waved in the direction of the Dubliner.
"Ah, it was nothing," he said. "You can say 'hello' to referees these days and pick up a yellow card. We just went in to calm things down a bit. When you see a lot of bodies in there it can always look worse than it actually is but there were no arms, no heads and no fisticuffs. There was nothing in it. You come in as a peacemaker and then everyone's wanting to get involved. It looks bad and the ref's wanting to give out yellows when people go in like that but I couldn't leave Steve Leslie. The lad was on the floor and a few of their players were standing over him. If anyone's looking to give it out to a young lad, I'll be first there to back him up - no problem."
The win moves Town up from ninth this morning to within a point of second place! The value of the victory was further demonstrated by Darlington's drop from third to eighth - that's how tight the division is this season.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed like that for a while," said Coughlan. "This is why we need to tidy up this away form, because the odd win here and there can make an enormous difference to our season. We have to maintain the good form that we have here which we touched on before. We've only conceded the one goal now in four games and it was a special goal too. The lad's struck it brilliantly last week, and if that had been in the Premier League they'd have been going on about it all season. Players at this level don't tend to get the plaudits they deserve; which irritates me.
"We're working hard at training and that seems to be paying off at the moment. We're doing okay, but we have to do even better to get to where we all want to be."
How very different that league two table might look if that monkey were to finally come off Town's backs in three days time!
