Friday, January 13, 2006

Respect, But No Fear From Nelson

Source: Pendle Today

THIS week has seen Tony Blair launch his respect agenda.
The Government has issued an action plan, with the slogan "Give respect, Get respect".
But Graham Howarth has his own views on respect.
The Nelson boss admitted his side gave FC United too much when they visited Gigg Lane in October, resulting in a 5-0 reverse.
But he is adamant it will be different when the sides meet again at Accrington Stanley's Interlink Express Stadium on Sunday (kick-off 2 p.m.).
Howarth admits there is nothing to fear, and said: "They've beaten Darwen 2-0 and Flixton 2-1, so they are not hammering teams.
"If we go out and perform we will give them a game, and what better than to go into it on the back of two victories.
"We gave them too much respect before, but it will be different this time. The only difference with the build-up is that we are playing on Sunday instead of Saturday.
"Apart from that there is nothing different, so we will treat it like any other game.
"It's a nice big pitch over there, same as ours, so there are no problems there. We're all looking forward to it – how can you not.
"We had a bit of a blip against Great Harwood, even though we had enough chances to win the game.
"But that's life – we didn't play particularly well, and if we had done, we would have beaten them.
"We were losing against Daisy Hill on Saturday as well, but I had a bit of a rant at half-time and they responded.
"They performed really well in the second half and gave me the right response, and then on Monday we've beaten a side from a higher league."
He added: "I don't think United are anywhere near as good as Cammell Laird were last season, and we managed to draw 3-3 against them at home.
"When we played them earlier on in the season, I think the crowd got to one or two of them, but hopefully it will be different this time.
"We were losing 1-0 at half-time, and we couldn't complain about the goal, but apart from that we were on top.
"If we had equalised when we were on top, like we should have done, it would have been a different game, but we didn't and gave them a sloppy goal.
"That killed us basically, and from then on we couldn't get back into it."
Nelson go into the clash on the back of two successive victories, including progression in the League Challenge Cup.
But those two wins have handed Howarth a problem – albeit a welcome one: "We won on Saturday and we won on Monday, which was pleasing. I left a few players out on Monday to give some others a chance, and we still managed the right result.
"It was pleasing, but now it has given me an almighty selection headache for this weekend.
"I've got the players from Saturday and the players from Monday, as well as Robbie Smith who is back after two games."
But Howarth still feels that his sides fate is in their own hands: "We've played more home games than away games, but that is down to our involvement in the cups.
"At the end of the day we can only worry about ourselves, and not worry about what others are doing.
"Winsford, Padiham and Flixton all have to come to us, so it is still in our own hands.
"I've told the lads we have to get the points back from when we lost to Great Harwood, and hopefully that can be on Sunday."
13 January 2006