TIM Flowers admits Bromsgrove Sporting must ‘earn their own luck’ ahead of a crunch clash with relegation rivals AFC Sudbury this weekend.
The Rouslers lost 1-0 against rivals Worcester City last weekend at the Victoria Ground as the club’s winless run stretched to four matches.
Bromsgrove sit 18th in the Southern League Premier Central table, just one place and two points above the relegation zone.
Weekend opponents Sudbury are nine points below Sporting in the drop zone.
And while Flowers does not believe the fixture will define Sporting’s season, he stressed the importance of taking all three points to move away from danger.
Flowers said: “It’s a pivotal game, it’s not make or break but we need to win the game.
“We need to set out to win it and set out to put them under pressure.
“We’re still in the bottom five. We need to make the running and play on the front foot
“We’ve had some soul-searching with each other. The Alvechurch game was the worst any of my teams have ever played.
“We’ve got to enthuse the supporters and put a product out there that the fans want to watch.
“We’re all determined to try and make something happen here.
“No one is giving up anything here, we’ll be throwing punches right up until the last game of the season.
“We’ve got to earn our own luck. We haven’t got ourselves away from what’s below us. The next game becomes even more important.”
Against Worcester, debutant Isaac Godwin saw red for the home side on the stroke of half time before Brandon Smalley won the game for the visitors with a second-half strike.
The game turned shortly before half time when Shrewsbury Town loanee Godwin picked up a second yellow card after catching Luke Rowe in the head with his boot.
And the visitors eventually broke the deadlock just past the hour mark as Smalley turned home Josh Bailey’s cutback from the left on the volley from eight-yards out.
Flowers added: “I haven’t seen the second yellow card back. It looks like he’s trying to flick the ball on and he ends up getting a second yellow.
“Their goal was definitely offside. The run [in the build-up] was offside, we’ve got it on the tape.
“We weren’t helped by the officials. I thought they were shocking. The linesman in front of me was dreadful, the worst I’ve ever known.
“The red card changes it right on half time.
“”I wanted to make a change because Worcester looked like they were going to score.
“But the linesman didn’t listen to me and they end up scoring, so we’re making that change after the horse has bolted.
“I thought we held our own and had a massive chance at the end to try and snatch something from the game.”
Bromsgrove are next in action against AFC Sudbury on Saturday, February 28 with kick-off at 3pm at the Victoria Ground.
