Resurgent Marlow finally find some form but are now playing 'catch up'

Marlow have recently shown just how competitive they can be in the Southern League Central Division, defeating play-off hopefuls Biggleswade Town and Welwyn Garden City at Oak Tree Road while also nicking a useful point on the road at Enfield.

In Saturday’s 3-2 home win over Welwyn, Naheer Nawaf netted twice and Flavio Gyawu-Kyem grabbed the other in a game the Blues should really have won more comfortably.

Nawaf will be disappointed not to have completed his hat-trick, with Welwyn having been reduced to 10 men just before the half-time interval.

He and Shamar Moore linked up well in attack and the Blues also had the luxury of bringing on Mitch Parker for the final 30 minutes or so, demonstrating the strength in depth they’ve been badly missing in the first months of the season.

“We had a few bodies out and it was a case of trying to get them back into the squad really,” said Bartley.

“What we’ve seen over the past four games is that we’ve had those bodies back in and we’ve added one or two new players. We look a hell of a lot better. We’ve won two of our last four and we’ve drawn one and I think we’re disappointed we didn’t win three of those.

“We’re moving in the right direction, and it feels a hell of a lot better than the last time we spoke.

“In the Enfield game, their goalkeeper scored from a long boot forward. Both of their goals were freak goals really. Leighton, we lost 4-1 but three of their goals we felt like we should never have conceded those goals. We had to take our medicine on that one.

“But if you look at our performances over those four games, all four of them have been good. Even against Leighton for 75 minutes we were very good before having a late lapse. In the other games, I thought we very good, and on Saturday, we were able to put it together for 90 minutes against a good Welwyn team. Naheer has been brilliant, he probably is disappointed he didn’t get a hat-trick on Saturday. Shamar (Moore) has been very good. We’ve been missing a number 9 and it’s been great to have him back.

“On Saturday, we were able to bring Mitch Parker off the bench as well so all of sudden we have these bodies back in and it feels like we had some strength in depth on the bench.”

The Blues had fallen into the lower reaches of the division after a disastrous start to the campaign and injuries to a series of key players, alongside the loss of form and confidence, meant they were struggling to capitalise on their opportunities in matches.

Bartley and his backroom team were also attempting to integrate an almost completely new squad, so there were bound to be teething issues on their return to step 4, but their poor start to the season will have raised eyebrows.

Four defeats in all competitions - all by four goals - through October forced Bartley to accept change was needed. Furious with the lack of application in their 4-0 loss at Thame United, he moved promptly to move on certain midfielders he felt weren’t pulling their weight. He’s now added one or two more experienced heads to the mix and with players returning from injury, results have improved culminating in Saturday’s deserved 3-2 win over Welwyn Garden City.

Bartley also now feels more optimistic his side can go away to London Lions on Saturday and claim another three points before embarking on a good run of form.

They’ve given their promotion rivals quite a head start, Bartley is convinced this version of the Blues are a match for anyone in the league and believes they can still chase down a top five finish.

He said: “We’ve beaten Biggleswade Town and Welwyn who were in the play-off positions when we played them. We’re pleased with how we’re performing at the minute.

“There’s not a lot between the teams in this league. A lot of them are very similar and what we’re seeing is that if we’ve got our bodies back and a full squad, we’re as good as anything in this league. We’ve got reason to be positive. But it’s not about us doing it over four games, I want us to do it over 20 games and 30 games, that’s the key. We feel like we’re ready to do that and we’re in a good place.

“We’ve got to do a bit of work because we’ve given ourselves a deficit to make up.

“But I’m confident in the players we’ve got that we can do that. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens over the next month or so.”