Rejuvenated Hawks aiming to end one of only three unbeaten home league records left in top six tiers of English football

Hawks celebrate their fourth goal in the midweek win against Hungerford. Picture by Dave Haines.

A run of nine games without a win - one short of equalling an unwanted club record - had left them 14th. Smiles were few and far between.

A month is a long time in football, obviously, and Wednesday’s 4-0 home thumping of Hungerford allowed Paul Doswell’s rejuvenated squad to leapfrog the Berkshire club into 10th place.

It was a third successive league win - the first time Hawks have achieved such a run of results since just before the first national lockdown - and a fourth in five fixtures.

Stefan Payne opens the scoring against Hungerford. Picture: Dave Haines

They may have risen only four places in as many weeks, but Hawks are now just two points adrift of the top seven - and there’s still 10 games, a quarter of the season, left to play.

The run-in begins with a trip to third-placed Dartford on Saturday, one of only three clubs in the top six tiers of English football still protecting an unbeaten home league record (Liverpool and Boreham Wood are the others).

But against that, only Maidstone and Oxford City have picked up more away NLS points this season than the Hawks’ 24.

‘Dartford away, it’s one you look forward to,’ said Doswell. ‘They haven’t lost at home - won nine, drawn six - but we’ll go in good spirits. Confidence is everything in football.

Tommy Wright gets his shirt tugged by Hungerford's Matthew Berry-Hargreaves. Picture by Dave Haines

‘It would be brilliant to get a result, even a point would be great.

‘We’ve taken 13 points out of 15 - that’s massive and it’s given us half a chance (of making the play-offs).

‘We’re six points behind Eastbourne (in sixth) with a game in hand and we still have to play them.

‘The Dartford game won’t define our season now. Had we lost at Dulwich or lost to Hungerford and lost at Dartford, it could well have done.’

Doswell admits shaking up his squad at the beginning of February - bringing in four new players - was virtually ‘a last roll of the dice.’

In came strikers Manny Duku and Stefan Payne, winger Sam Smart and midfielder Alfy Whittingham.

Whittingham and Smart have now been recalled from their loans by parent clubs Aldershot and Eastleigh. ‘That was disappointing,’ said Doswell. ‘We thought we had them for the season.’

Payne and Duku, meanwhile, have contributed to Hawks’ potentially turning their season around.

The former, on loan from Chesterfield, opened the scoring against Hungerford with his fourth Hawks goal. And Duku grabbed his third for the club, a towering far post header for the second goal.

Doswell has fielded an attacking-looking XI in recent games, with Alex Wall as a central striker with Payne on the left and Duku on the right. Tommy Wright has been operating as a No 10 behind Wall, a position he regularly played at Sutton.

‘We’ve got a big, pacy, physical front three now,’ said the manager. ‘And Tommy loves playing in that position.

‘It’s basically a 4-2-4 with Tommy acting as the third midfielder (with Billy Clifford and Jake McCarthy) when needed.

‘The new players have made a difference. Manny is unpredictable, he’s a different type of striker.’

Regarding the Hungerford game, Doswell added: ‘It was really important to get a win, and the way we got it.

‘In the second half we created so many chances, I was disappointed we didn’t get it up to six or seven, it was almost too easy for us at times.

‘It should have been more - Tommy Wright sidefooted one wide, Jake Andrews has header over from two yards out, Jake McCarthy was six yards out … that’s three chances in the six-yard box, we’ve got to be taking those chances on Saturday, that’s key.’

Doswell expects the luckless Paul Rooney to be available for Dartford after missing the midweek game through a head injury suffered in training.

After that, two more centre halves - Guy Hollis and Jamie Collins - could be available for the following week’s home game with rock bottom Billericay.

Hawks have the weight of history against them this weekend. They have only beaten Dartford once in their last 10 league (and play-off) meetings. But, for those who enjoy omens, that was a 2-0 home win exactly six years ago - a James Hayter double sealing the points on March 19, 2016.

Hawks could actually jump into the play-off zone this weekend, but would need three points at Dartford, St Albans to lose at home to Ebbsfleet and Chippenham and Dulwich to both fail to win.