Reaction from Stamford AFC manager Graham Drury after the win over Sporting Khalsa

Manager Graham Drury is not letting his Stamford leaders get carried away by his nine-point advantage at the top of the Northern Premier League Midlands Division.

A 3-1 home win over Sporting Khalsa on Saturday, coupled with Halesowen’s loss to Shepshed Dynamo, has placed the Daniels firmly in the driver’s seat to clinch the league title with six games left of the season.

They achieved the Stamford manager’s first goal of securing a play-off spot after Saturday’s success.

And Drury insists their next goal will be to guarantee home advantage in these play-offs with a second-place finish.

He said: “The weekend went well for us again but we’re focused on what we’re doing.

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“Of course you can hear movement in the background about what other teams are doing, but we have to do our job and get three points on the board. If we keep going like this, nobody can say anything anyway.

“It gives us breathing space but our first goal was to cement a play-off spot, which we did.

“It’s a tick and a job done and I congratulated the players on that. The next hurdle is to make sure we get home field advantage and I won’t let them get carried away.”

“We might have to win two games to get that home field advantage and hopefully we’ll have to tick that off in the next couple of games.

“If we do that it would take a big meltdown not to win the title but with the position we’re in we’re a big scalp for teams right now.”

Drury felt his side should have been ‘over the hill and far away’ in the opening stages of Saturday’s competition as they missed a number of good chances after taking the lead through Rob Morgan.

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Khalsa then had two players of the court in the second half but reduced the deficit to 2-1 after Jonathon doubled Margett’s Stamford lead before Marshall Willock sealed the late win.

Drury added: “I was frustrated at half-time because it was a copy of Sutton Coldfield’s game where we lost two points.

“We didn’t play according to our game plan in the second half of this game and weren’t at the races after missed chances in the first half.

“I think we got out of the blocks a little better in the second half on Saturday, but Sporting Khalsa always work with you and you don’t get clear headers. They are dangerous on the edge of the box and have some really good players.

“It should have been dead and buried though and we should have been over the hill and well away by half time.

“There should have been three points in the bag but we don’t do anything easy and even though they were down to nine men the third goal was necessary because you’re never sure and it’s just a breakaway, a slip or a bad decision. “

Stamford is out and about on Saturday as they visit Cambridge City.