Avenue boss proud of work ethic in Trophy shock

[FF News]

Bradford Park Avenue manager Martin Drury was proud of his players’ work ethic as they stormed to a fifth consecutive win, defeating National League side Lincoln City in the FA Trophy.

Nathan Turner grabbed his first goal for the club following outstanding work from Jason St Juste, before Craig King scored his third goal in four games to seal the victory.

“I’m proud of the players tonight,” he said. “Lincoln are a good side who are doing well in their league, they’re a big, physical, direct team, and obviously where they are it is very effective.

“We noticed tonight that they changed it up a little bit, so we altered a couple of things such as putting Jason (St Juste) on the right hand side and Kingy on the left, just to switch things up a little bit.

“But we still stuck to our philosophy and worked incredibly hard to get the result.

“It was a really ugly game if I’m honest, not a great game of football at all, but we’ve got the win and in the end that is all that matters and we are really pleased about that.”

One highlight of the Avenue side was Jason St Juste, who after a thrilling first half saw Lincoln left back Chris Bush withdrawn at the break, and Drury was full of praise for the Avenue winger.

“Jason was excellent, he really really was,” the Avenue manager said. “Bush isn’t a bad player at all, Jason is just very quick.

“We tried to isolate him and get him one-on-one early doors as much as we could, which we managed to do, and the rest is down to Jason.

“You give him the ball one-on-one, and there’s not many players that can deal with Jason St Juste in that situation.”

For the second time in three days, winger Craig King proved the match winner for Avenue as he pounced on a loose ball before finishing excellently into the top corner to leave Drury purring.

“Kingy’s been fantastic, especially the last five or six games he’s been absolutely superb, and you know what you get from Craig,” he said.

“His work rate is unbelievable and his fitness levels are phenomenal, and he is reaping the rewards for working hard.

“We sat down with him a few weeks ago and spoke about his goals, and needing more from him in that area, and Craig goes away, thinks about it, comes back and produces.

“That’s what he does. It’s an honour to have him at the club, it really is a privilege.”

One sour note came with ten minutes to go when goalkeeper Jon Stewart was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Lincoln striker Matt Rhead.

“Jon’s obviously disappointed in himself,” Drury said. “He’s a bit low at the minute, feels like he’s let us down a little bit but hey, it’s football.

“Jon’s got to learn from that. He’s lashed out, I don’t think there’s any malice in it but obviously he’s kicked out, the ref’s seen it and sent him straight off.

“He’s apologised, we’ll have a chat with him next week, but it is not a big thing at all.”

Stewart will miss three games in two weeks time; Nuneaton Town in the league before the county cup game with Halifax, ending his suspension with the second round Trophy tie against Nantwich.

“We’ll have to have a sit down and think about things. Obviously we’ll need a goalkeeper,” Drury said.

“We’ll look around, speak to a few people and maybe try and pull in a favour from someone, but he will definitely be a big loss for us.”

Source: tc1.bpafc.com

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