Ricardo seeks home comforts after historic night for Beverley Town
Beverley Town manager Dave Ricardo is hoping support can help his side turnaround their home form.
The Beavers are 11th in their first season on Northern Counties East League Division One, but so far, they have picked up all 10 points on the road.
Unbeaten away, they have lost both their home games, but Ricardo is confident the Norwood faithful can cheer his team on to start picking up points.
He said: “The support has been superb.
“The fans gave us a real lift in the second half against Rossington Main when we had 10 men.
“We deserved a point easily and it was fantastic to see such a fan base.”
The 3-2 defeat against Rossington was followed by a disappointing 1-0 reverse against Swallownest, in front of a crowd of 272.
“We just didn’t turn up,” admitted the boss. “I’ve spoken to a couple of the players who did really well away at Shirebrook in the 2-2 draw.
“They said the pressure got to them at home and they had not played in front of that many people before.
“It is a ground where fans are very close to the pitch, so we need to find a way to turn that pressure on to the opposition.
“The one thing you usually get from my teams is playing on the front foot and digging and scrapping for each other.
“We had good chances in the last 15 minutes with crosses, but nobody had the desire to get on the end of them.
“But this is just the start of the season and we have plenty of time to put things right.
“For the first three games away from home, expectations were raised because we won all three.
“I was guilty of that too because I could see the levels we were capable of, but I could also see we would need to get better, even though we were winning.”
September sees a busy month for the Beavers, starting with a League Cup first round tie at Worsborough Bridge Athletic on Wednesday evening (7th September).
That is followed by a trip to Armthorpe Welfare, back-to-back home games against Retford and Glasshoughton Welfare and a derby match over the Humber Bridge at Brigg Town.
Town will also have to cope without last season’s top scorer Joe Norton, who also scored their first home goal at NCEL level. He has teamed up with former Beverley manager Mike Thompson at Bridlington Town.
“Joe played a couple of games down the middle for us in pre-season, but we had been using him as a right winger and we are lucky that is one of the positions we have cover in.
“We have a busy September, but we have near enough everybody back from holiday now.”
Former Serie A star Danielle Mannini is still a couple of weeks away from full fitness.
“We have missed Dani, especially in terms of his quality from set pieces. When he is over the dead balls, we always look like scoring, but we are also looking to bring a couple of extra players in too.”
