Blues aiming to make home a fortress

Lee Goodall wants to use Monks Lane to help his side avoid relegation

NEWBURY Blues head coach Lee Goodall believes having four of their remaining six league games at home is an advantage.

The Blues make the long trip to Brixham this weekend before welcoming Cleve and Dings Crusaders to Monks Lane before the end of the month.

A trip to Newton Abbot kick starts April, ahead of two home games against Exmouth and Bournemouth before the season finishes.

Although Goodall’s side are fighting for survival in the South West Premier, he feels his team can make home advantage count.

He said: "Our ambition was always to try and make home a fortress.

"Having four games at home can play to our advantage – it’s kind of assisted us really and I’m looking forward to it."

Goodall has stated that they are taking one week at a time ahead of the remaining games, starting with the clash at Brixham on Saturday.

"We are aware that the weather down there isn’t good,” he said. “We are going to go and play on potentially a soft or very soft pitch."

Saturday’s opposition sit just two places above the Blues and aren’t guaranteed safety just yet, meaning the game is equally important for both teams.

Last weekend, all the league games were postponed owing to the heavy snow across the country and the re-arrangement of Newbury’s home fixture with Cleve has worked in their favour.

Goodall said: "The game has been re-arranged for March 17, which was always a reserve weekend and we have made players aware of that early on.

"What it does for us is that it groups the games together after travelling to Brixham – which is one of our furthest trips along with Camborne.

"After this weekend, we only have one more away game this season and four at home and we’ll take that.” He added

The two sides met back in November when Brixham were 23-14 winners at Monks Lane.

Coming into the crunch game, the hosts have only won one of their previous five games, while Newbury have registered three victories in their last five.

It’ll be a tough test for Goodall and his players as Brixham have only suffered two defeats in nine games at home.