Rams determined to keep on the right road

PETERSFIELD TOWN are on their travels again determined to ensure the wait for their next away victory isn't as long as the winless run they ended last Saturday.
Alfie Whittingham. Picture: Neil MarshallAlfie Whittingham. Picture: Neil Marshall
Alfie Whittingham. Picture: Neil Marshall

The 2-1 success at Aylesbury, thanks to a double from Alfie Whittingham, was their first Southern League triumph on the road since January 23.

Petersfield haven’t travelled well since they moved up into division one central in August 2015.

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Other than Aylesbury and Royston, their only other three-point hauls have come at North Greenford United, Aylesbury United and Uxbridge.

New manager Gary Lines, who has been installed in the role until the end of the season following John Robson’s departure earlier this week, will be keen to extend Petersfield’s winning run to a third game in a row after victories over Aylesbury and Portsmouth Water Company in the Portsmouth Senior Cup.

As for the general poor record away from home in the Southern League, chairman Graeme Moir said it was something the club had not been able to solve so far.

‘There is an obvious reason for this and that is due to the amount of travelling we have to do compared to other clubs in the division,’ said Moir.

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‘We are the furthest team south and west in the division so we will always have to travel further than those sides who are more centrally located.

‘When you look at our home form, though, particularly that of last season, we picked up a lot of points at Love Lane so it’s swings and roundabouts really.

‘We suffer when we have long trips away from home and teams coming to us on long trips don’t fare that well either.

‘Other than that I don’t think there is one particular reason why we haven’t travelled well over the last two seasons.

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‘All we can do is look at things like our travel arrangements and our preparations and tweak things so we get the advantage we need on our travels.

‘It’s not something you can just write off though – if we can get things right away from home and pick up more points it will take the pressure off some of the home games.’

Aylesbury United are currently in 10th place in the division one central table, and they earned a 1-0 win at Love Lane back in August.

The Rams have no new injury concerns or suspensions going into this game.