Tom Peterson’s brace helped Bootle to a 4-2 win over Kendal Town leaving the Bucks manager Brian Richardson pleased.
It saw them dust themselves down after the defeat to Warrington Rylands before narrowly missing out on victory against Workington.
The three points in Cumbria could prove to be pivotal in the respect of the season as Bootle moved closer to the play-offs whilst the hosts remain pinned in the bottom two.
Richardson was pleased with his side and how they coped without league top goalscorer Ben Hodkinson but despite the positive result, negatives were highlighted including another two goals added to the against column on the table.
“Positives was scoring four away from home which is hard to do, negatives probably conceding two which we’ve got to improve on,” he told Off The Park.
“We didn’t have Ben Hodkinson for the last two games but we played well, played some good football in spells and come away with three points. Kendal’s never an easy place to go, the weather wasn’t particularly great – nothing like Storm Barra at Workington – certainly I thought we acquitted ourselves quite well.
“I thought we played some good stuff overall I thought it was a satisfactory win. They’re a team with a new manager in a low position in the league but they work very hard for each other. We’ve had more difficult games against teams higher in the league than that.”
In the absence of Hodkinson, two forwards have found their names amongst goalscorers after a tactical tweak from the former Prescot Cables manager.
Peterson added to his goal in midweek with a double whilst Jack McGowan netted two in the win over Kidsgrove Athletic.
The emergence on the scoresheet and has become consistent all down to a tactical tweak.
Richardson revealed: We’ve asked Tom [Peterson] and Jack [McGowan] to try and face goal more. They were playing a lot with their back to go and neither of them are big strikers, I don’t they create problems when they’re trying to wrestle and fight through the air with lads four, five inches higher than them.
“We’ve asked them to start going in behind than facing it up and being a target man so Tom did that very effectively on Saturday getting in behind them and the result was a couple of goals.
“Both Jack and him have scored a brace or a single goal in the last months, that’s all good for the team. Hopefully the confidence in them both is rising and they’re able to do what they’re doing. They’re fresh when they play and your scoring goals so can’t ask for more than that.”
The win over Kendal brought a debut goal for on-loan Matty McDonald, who’d only signed for the Bucks some 24 hours earlier.
It was his first start in under half a year after suffering from injury but the Warrington Town man did his selection chances no favours, earning rave reviews from the Bootle boss.
“Matty [McDonald] has been out, for what, five months? That’s his first time he’s been on the pitch in five months and he did remarkably well.
“But I think even Matty will admit, even with half an hour [left] he was pretty tired. What we’ve got to do is use him effectively but not expect him to be the real deal after he’s been out for five months but I can only say for a lad that’s only been out for five months he’s going to be some player when he’s fully fit.
“Obviously Warrington Town have a high regard for him and they’re trying to fast track him back, it’s come at a time when we’ve had a couple of injuries in midfield so he’s fitted quite well with what we’re trying to do as well.”
Saturday’s sees a crucial game in the respect of the league table with a win meaning the hosts will overtake Mossley and move closer to the play-offs.
However, their home form of late has been a shadow of the fortress they would like Vesty Road to be but for whatever reason, the origin of the disappointing run is unfathomable.
But despite the Greater Manchester side being on a difficult spell of results themselves, Richardson is hoping that they enter with the same mindset as previous matches.
“Mossley started very well, it’ll be an interesting game. Both sides are probably doing better away from home than they are at home – I think that’s something that we have to address because it hasn’t been good enough and hopefully we can improve on that.
“I can’t even give a reason why. We don’t play any different, don’t take more chances, we’re pretty attacking-minded away from home as we are at home, we score goals on the road.
“For whatever reason, it may be that the last two or three games at home we’ve played teams at a higher level and that could have something to do with it.
“It’s not easy to put your finger on things and you can over-analyse things, we’ll go about trying to get a result against a side who I think I’ve done very well this season, albeit slightly slipped a little bit recently but they’ve had very good results.”
