BROMSGROVE Sporting manager Gavin Hurren praised the positive environment around the club as he looks to guide the Rouslers to safety this season.
Hurren replaced Brendan Kelly in the Victoria Ground dugout back in October and has embarked on a eight-game unbeaten run in the league prior to the club’s festive fixtures.
Home wins against Barwell and St Ives Town has lifted the Rouslers away from the drop zone although Hurren insists Sporting remain in a relegation battle.
And Hurren praised both the players and supporters for helping the club turn around their difficult start to the campaign.
Hurren said: “It’s a really positive environment, from the footballing people who run the club, the fans are brilliant and the players have bought into everything that I’ve tried to put across to them.
“The players are giving their all for the club and it’s really down to organisation and professionalism – the application has been absolutely on point since I’ve come through the door.
“It was important to assess where we were at when I came in and we were towards the bottom of the league, we’re still in a relegation battle, we were a team conceding a lot of goals.
“You’ve got to start somewhere and the foundations of being hard to beat are to keep clean sheets which puts you in good stead to climb the table.”
The foundations of Bromsgrove’s unbeaten run in the Southern League Premier Central have come from defence, conceding just seven goals in Hurren’s reign thus far.
Hurren added: “We’re showing now that we’ve got some structure off the ball, we’re hard to beat and going forward we’re creating chances.
“It’s nice that the lads’ confidence has really picked up – we go into every game thinking we’re going to win it, which is a real positive.
“It’s a credit to the lads, the chairman, the board and the fans all sticking together because it hasn’t been easy.
“The league is so tight, now we’re on the right way to hopefully climb the league, we’ve added a couple of bodies over the last few weeks and a few more will come in.
“We just concentrate on each game as it comes, we have a gameplan, we stick to it and as long as we apply ourselves in the way that we have, I believe we’ll always come out with a positive result.”
And having steadied the ship on the field, Hurren believes Sporting have also turned their attention to developing the club off the field as well.
Hurren hopes several ideas regarding the infrastructure of the club come to fruition which includes creating a scholarship programme to feed into the first-team.
He said: “When I sat with the club, the infrastructure off the field has to be there – we’ve got a fantastic following of fans and we have a massive town of footballing people in Bromsgrove.
“The club have identified certain things they want to implement in the infrastructure but it’s not going to happen overnight, hopefully we can keep moving forward.
“I’m there to concentrate on the first-team and what happens on the field but it’s nice for a manager to know that we’re going to potentially have a scholarship programme.
“That would help with the youth and feed into the first-team, it’s a good thing to know and feel as a manager that there’s a good infrastructure off the field, it’s a credit to the club.
“If they get that right off the field, I think it’s only going to bring success on the field.”
And the Rouslers boss hopes to be able to deliver success on the pitch next year as a reward to the club’s loyal supporters.
He said: “Ever since I’ve come in, I’ve said how important the fans are to the team and to the club, it’s a footballing town and we’ve all got to stick together.
“We’ve got to keep giving this positive energy, it really means a lot to the lads and it’s great to get the numbers through the gates.
“As long as we’ve got the fans behind us, it gives us that lift and with that we’ll hopefully bring more success on the field.”
Sporting are scheduled to play three matches over the festive period beginning with Stourbridge just after Christmas before they travel to Stratford Town on New Year’s Day and then make the trip to Biggleswade Town two days later.
