YATE Town have completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes during September and manager Paul Britton has praised the efforts of everyone at the club to turn things around.

The Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West outfit have gone from a dark place during August where they could not buy a win or points to a run of three wins and a draw from the next five matches.

And that has included beating some decent sides in the division, including Salisbury who were expected to be challenging for promotion at the end of the season.

Yate have gone from rock bottom a month ago to just under mid-table now by beating Bridgwater, Wantage and Salisbury while gaining a 1-1 draw at AFC Totton last Saturday.

Although they went out of the League Cup by 3-1 at Shortwood United on Tuesday night, a match Britton used to give some game-time to squad players, they will be at full strength again this weekend when they play Mangotsfield United for the second time this season, this affair at Cossham Street in the FA Trophy Preliminary Round.

Britton said of the turnaround: “We are always playing catch-up at the start of the season. Everyone had a squad of players and we were starting off completely brand new.

“So September was terrific for us with three wins on the board.”

Britton said Yate will lose again during the campaign as the league is a tough one this term, but is confident the side have turned a corner.

“There are going to be blips along the way and everything is not going to be all rosy. There will be blips but we are in a good place now. The board and supporters are singing from the same hymn sheet.

“We knew we had to build a team environment and team atmosphere and you can see that developing already. You have a young group of players trying to win games of football.”

The Yate Town board met with Britton a few days before they tackled Bridgwater Town in a crucial bottom of the table clash which the Bluebells won 3-2 to kick-start their revival.

Britton said: “The lads are confident whereas, in August, they were thinking about where our first win was going to come from.

“Now they trust each other and they can win games.

“There have been a lot of negatives and people probably thought we (Britton and his management team) were going to lose our jobs at the club but the board and supporters have been so supportive.”

He could now be forgiven for thinking about targets in the top end of the division but that is not how the manager looks at it.

“There are no initial targets other than to win football matches. We had to start to win somewhere and I want to be successful with Yate.”

Mangotsfield beat Yate 3-1 at Cossham Street at the end of August but will certainly find them a far different unit this time around.

Britton added: “We go into the game thinking we can win. We will give it our best shot.”