LIAM McDONALD believes he has assembled the best squad he has had in three years at Redditch United – and he wants the players to prove it.
The Reds boss is hoping back-to-back bank holiday wins over Dunstable Town and Stratford Town – their first victories of the season – will kick-start their Southern Premier campaign after a frustrating opening few weeks.
He revealed a half-time rollicking galvanised the players to defeat Stratford 3-2 after they had trailed, but he insists his belief in his squad has not faltered.
“After four draws in a row, everyone was a little bit down and starting to compare us to last season when we just missed the play-offs,” said McDonald. “But we’ve lost a lot of players and we have to keep rebuilding to compete, without having the finances of other clubs.
“But I believe in the players here. I think this is the best squad I’ve had here. It’s been tough losing Jermaine Hylton, Ashley Sammons and Jordan Jones but I feel we’ve been able to bring in very good players, and, in my opinion, better players.”
McDonald, though, admitted he needed to dish out some straight-talking as the Reds recovered from 2-1 down at half-time to beat Stratford.
“Words were said at half-time but I got the reaction I wanted,” said the boss. “It was a rollicking but we needed it. I questioned the character but we went out and responded. I said we had to stand up and be counted and we did that.”
“We can now go to Bedworth on Saturday full of confidence and if we go and perform like we did in the second half on Monday we come back with some points and make it seven games unbeaten.”
