Stamford AFC travel to Chasetown in the Northern Premier League South East Division for the first of five successive away games

Manager Graham Drury believes his Stamford side are starting to gain momentum ahead of a daunting run of five successive away matches.

The Daniels are still unbeaten over 90 minutes in their 10 games this season after maintaining that sequence in a goalless home draw with Worksop Town on Tuesday night.

The stalemate leaves Stamford as one of only two unbeaten teams – along with Newcastle Town – in the Northern Premier League South East Division.

They travel to Chasetown on Saturday and are then scheduled to visit Sheffield FC on Tuesday night.

Both Chasetown and Sheffield have had to call off matches in the past week due to Covid-19 issues at their respective clubs, but Saturday’s hosts have confirmed that the match will go-ahead as their self-isolation period expires at the end of today (Friday).

Drury said: “We wanted the game to be on at the weekend because we want to play.

“We’re 10 games unbeaten, we’ve kept another clean sheet on Tuesday night and, although it’s very rare that we don’t score, we’re now getting players back and trying to get our strength in depth back again to get our lads tip-top fit.

“We can’t lose games against the big sides who are going to be up there at the end of the season and we haven’t done in two games against Ilkeston and Worksop.

“It was a really entertaining 0-0 draw on Tuesday and it was a fantastic crowd of 377 to watch a game that was also well refereed.

“The momentum is building and we’re pleased with how the whole club is growing.”

The away league double-header is followed by a tough FA Trophy tie the following weekend at higher level Southern League Premier Division Central side Stourbridge.

The Daniels then start November with tricky trips to Frickley Athletic and Belper Town, but Drury was buoyed ahead of their run of away games by how his side played against an imposing Worksop team on Tuesday night.

He added: “Worksop are a very direct side and we did the same with our long throws in the end just to try and make them defend their box.

“We probably had the best three chances of the game, but I thought both defences and keepers were really strong.

“It was a really hard-fought game and I was really proud of my boys because they stood up to a real physical task.

“We showed two sides in that, when we played through James Hicks for 35 minutes, we were great while our defending for the 90 minutes was excellent when they put stuff on us.

“I was chuffed with the group. We’ve had to dig in because they were a nuisance with their game-plan but we stood tall and defended really well.

“Every other team in the league will be happy with the result but we both were as well.”