Blues' season boils down to final three games

Newbury are preparing for their final three games in the South West Premier

NEWBURY Blues head coach Lee Goodall has compared their remaining three South West Premier fixtures to a ‘cup run’ as they target league safety.

Blues are currently in the final relegation spot after Ivybridge beat Bracknell last week to move up to eighth in the table.

Goodall’s side have amassed 50 points, but remain four points behind Bracknell ahead of the trip to Newton Abbot this weekend.

He said: “With us having the Easter weekend off, I hope everyone is well rested and raring to go ahead of Saturday’s game.”
Ivybridge recorded a bonus-point win on Saturday and Goodall believes it has changed things in the division.

He said: “Last weekend was pivotal for us as it puts a four-point gap between us and Bracknell.

“It just shows you the value of the points because Ivybridge have moved up to eighth, so it’s turned the heat up a little bit more.”

The Blues coach knows they can’t rely on other results and admitted that they have to do their job first.

He said: “I’ve looked at everyone’s run-in and there is still so much to play for and we have to win our next three games – we can’t control what Bracknell do to Maidenhead.

“Effectively what we have is a cup run – it’s a quarter final, a semi-final and a final and we need to win them to progress.”

After this weekend, Blues have two home games on the bounce and Goodall is aware of the difficulty they face in getting maximum points.

“We have to win at Newton Abbot this weekend, we have to beat Exmouth and we could potentially have a showdown on the last day.

“We need to beat Bournemouth to try and guarantee rugby at this level again and they’ll probably need to beat us to secure a spot in the play-offs,” the head coach added.