ROGER HERRIDGE is confident Binfield have what it takes to topple Bracknell Town – but admits his side could use a little bit of luck along the way.
The Moles have faced their rivals three times already this season, losing on each occasion, and go head-to-head once again in the Hellenic Challenge Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday night.
And with eighth place in the Hellenic Premier the best Binfield can hope for in the league, the cups represent a huge target for the remainder of Herridge’s season.
But the Moles manager is under no illusion about how tough it will be against the high-flying Robins at Larges Lane (7.45pm kick-off).
“You can’t take away that Bracknell are a very good side,” Herridge told The Wokingham Paper.
“We probably would’ve liked to have avoided them at this stage of the competition.
“The previous games against Bracknell, we’ve always been in the games.
“In the Vase game (a 2-1 loss) we dug in and in all fairness to Bracknell, I thought they deserved to win the game, albeit they scored their two goals late.
“The league game over there (a 3-2 loss), I felt we were unlucky not to get a point and in the league game at our place (a 1-0 loss), we were always in the game but you have to say they deserved to win.”
He added: “How do we beat them? You need a little bit of luck on the day, that’s for sure.
“We need to be on top of our game.
“If we play like we did against Newport Pagnell in the semi-final of the County Cup (winning 6-3), potentially we can beat anyone.
“Bracknell are a good side, but we’re certainly not going there to make up the numbers.
“We need to cut out the individual errors that we’re making and make sure that when those chances come along that we take them.
“We’ve got a striker in Liam Ferdinand that you know more often than not, if the chance falls to him, he’s going to stick it in the back of the net.
“If we can get the ball to Liam in the right areas, I certainly think we can cause them a few problems.”
Binfield suffered their first away defeat in four with a 3-0 reverse at Thatcham Town on Saturday, a loss which ends any realistic hopes of climbing higher than their current position of eighth.
And Herridge admits the league campaign has to go down as below par.
“The target was to finish in the top six at the beginning of the season,” he said.
“We’re not going to do that so that will be a disappointment.
“I could probably put my finger on that period of games between the middle of September and the end of October where we never won a game in the league for eight matches.
“That’s the reason why we aren’t into that top six.”
He added: “I was probably saying this at the same time last year but I think we’ve got a nucleus of a decent squad.
“It’s probably apparent for all that watch us where we do need to improve.
“You know what you want, but it’s finding those players. The trouble is those players are courted by a number of other teams within a 20 mile radius.”
