Chelsea captain John Terry inspires Borough boss

Feb 25 2011 By Jon Batham

DAVID Howell borrowed a leaf from the John Terry book of motivation ahead of Harrow Borough’s crunch game at Croydon on Saturday.

Terry told his Chelsea side they would have to ‘man up’ prior to Tuesday’s win over FC Copenhagen.

And Howell knows his Borough side will have to show a similar spine against the relegation-haunted south Londoners if they are to revive their flagging play-off bid.

Successive defeats on the road at Concord and AFC Hornchurch have seen Borough lose the fear factor they had exercised over opponents for the last two months when they have scored goals for fun, and they are now six points off the pace.

It is a time for grit and character says Howell.

"It is like John Terry said this week - we have to man up, stand up and be counted now.

"People were afraid of us because we were scoring goals at will and when you can do that you put sides on the back foot.

"We have lost that flow at the moment, but you can’t perform at that level from August to April. So there are times when you have to be solid, keep yourself in games and have a level of consistency."

Howell believes Croydon’s win over promotion-chasing Tonbridge in their last home fixture proves the Ryman League is notoriously unpredictable, meaning many more twists and turns in the final third of the campaign.

He added: "It is not going to get any easier between now and the end of the season, because sides like Croydon are battling for every point to stay in the league.

"So we must make sure we pick ourselves up and that we are not caught out like Tonbridge were, or like we ourselves were caught out when we lost at Folkestone.

"We are coming into the final stretch of the season now and some sides are coming off the last bend with momentum, while we’ve hit a few hurdles lately and are running with a bit of a stitch, but we’ve got to grind it out."