YATE Town manager Craig Laird hopes that luck will work in his side’s favour as they climb to within reach of the Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West play-off places.
The Bluebells travel to Marlow on Saturday and should expect to add a second consecutive win to their results tally after a frustrating but ultimately victorious afternoon on Saturday in beating bottom-placed Bashley 2-0 at Lodge Road.
Yate are now seventh in the table. They are on the same number of points – 18 – as Shortwood United, who have three games in hand on the Bluebells, however, and are one point behind Taunton and Tiverton.
So getting another three points at Marlow, who are 18th in the league, would be a big boost towards Yate’s cause.
Laird was not getting carried away by the win over a Bashley side who played five in defence and four in midfield on Saturday, and the proof of Yate’s credentials will come before the end of the month when they tackle third-placed Swindon Supermarine at Lodge Road before taking on Shortwood three days later.
The manager said: “It is a beginning but one swallow doesn’t make a summer. We have got to get our heads down. These boys do work hard. 
“If we can get that little rub of the green – and this might be a beginning – we can move onto bigger and better things. We proved we can do it. We played Evesham and took points off them. We are a good team but it is a just getting that little rub of the green.”
The win over Bashley, which saw Jake Cox fire home in the first-half and Callum Laird poke the ball into the back of the visiting net for his first goal for the club, was hard work and was not helped by Yate missing early chances which would have made their win comfortable.
Laird admitted the Bashley match was an accident waiting to happen but, thankfully for Yate, they dodged it.
“I thought early on we should have been two or three goals up and that would probably have made the game easier but missed chances always make it difficult. 
“The important thing was to get three points, whether it was 1-0 or 10-0.
“We move onto the next game with a win under our belts and if we can gather some momentum, it will be good.
“This could have been a banana skin, especially with them having won last week in the Trophy. 
“They packed the defence so we had to break it down either down the wings or through the middle.
“We had to keep to our plan and make sure we didn’t lose.”
And despite the obvious challenges of tackling Swindon Supermarine and Shortwood in the coming weeks, Laird thinks sides with more about them can be easier to plan to beat.
“The good thing about playing teams of a better standard is that they come at you and leave more space for you to exploit.”