Nathan Harker reacted to the Anchors’ victory over Cleethorpes Town on Saturday.
The goalkeeper opened by providing his analysis on the matchup: “I thought first-half we were excellent, we knew it’d be a tough place to come as they’re doing really well and they set-up confidently and they make their home ground a fortress.
“We did really well to go one-nil up, exploiting their high-line and everyone did a good job at holding them out to go into the break at 1-0, but to be honest I don’t think we really got out of the blocks for the second-half.
They applied a lot of pressure and deserved their equaliser, but even though they built momentum, Thommo obviously did what he does best and we saw the game out well to get the three points.”
He followed by reviewing his own performance – which was highlighted by a stunning double save to secure the three points late in the game: “I didn’t think it was one of my best games to be honest, I didn’t have a lot to do and couldn’t have done much about their goal but you’ve always got to find a way to keep yourself focused, their first shot took a deflection and to be honest I thought it had went wide, I saw the rebound last minute and made myself big and that’s all you can really do in those situations.”
Nathan then took the time to credit the backline in front of him, who dealt with plenty of Cleethorpes pressure throughout the game: “Oh they were unbelievable. Cleethorpes’ forwards brought a lot of pressure, we matched them with a back-four in the second-half, it was one of those performances you have to grind out and I think the character of the team shone through.
Tom, Arjun and Jamie headed everything, blocked everything and it was a real workman’s performance to get over the line. Throughout the season, if we want to be successful you’ve got to have a bit of grit and determination like we did and that’s what we did.”
The shot-stopper closed by looking ahead to Saturday’s clash with Bamber Bridge: “We’re confident – we’ve got to be. We’ve been in good form, throughout the season I think it’s probably clicked a little bit against Guiseley on Tuesday night, and we saw elements of it in the first-half against Cleethorpes, we had to show the other side of it today to get over the line.
I think if we can put a run together and put a run together. It’s really tight at the top at the moment so we’ve to stick to the pack and keep picking up three points and we’ll be there and thereabouts where we want to be.”
The Anchors host Bamber Bridge at 3pm on Saturday, as they look for their third straight win.
