Bond Keen To Ease The Pressure
Bond Keen To Ease The Pressure - Gaffer looks ahead to Crewe showdown
Cherries Manager Kevin Bond is not putting any undue pressure on the team ahead of Saturday's League One clash against Crewe Alexandra.
Cherries must get a result from the game to keep alive survival chances although in reality a point is unlikely to be enough. It's down the players fighting spirit however, that there is still something riding on the final home game of the season.
The team have gone on a tremendous run of late and showed real character to get this far. Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, nobody can fault the attitude and desire of the players to keep on fighting for survival.
And Bond is after the players to keep the focus and keep working hard as they have done since the club entered Administration without building any pressure as each game passes.
Previewing the game Bond said, "We're pretty much as we were last week and everyone is looking forward to the game. We've tried not to put ourselves under any pressure if we can avoid it as we're at a critical stage of the season.
"But we must remain focused and single minded and not worry about anything other than what we can do to get a positive result. That's what we've done in recent weeks and all that we can do is concentrate and work hard.
"Nicky Maynard has come back and shown what an important player he is for them. They wouldn't be in the position they are in had he been fit throughout the season.
"They're a dangerous side who have shown they can compete and win against the best in the division. We need to show them the utmost respect. It won't be anything like the game at their place, but we'll still be doing all we can to get the win.
It's good that we've come to our last home game with something still on it. We feared that might not be the case and the match ending up a bit of a damp squib.
"Our home form of late has been really good and the support makes all the difference for us. It would be nice if we could beat the gate we had against Leeds United as the atmosphere generated that night was second to none."
