March Town can take confidence from last two performances

March Town United manager Ashley Taylor says his players can take great confidence from their last two performances.

The Hares, who were at FA Vase holders Newport Pagnell Town last night, travel to bottom side Long Buckby at the weekend.

And the March boss has labelled his side's last two performances as "exceptional" after watching his players draw 2-2 at United Counties League Premier Division South leaders Rugby Town on the back of a 1-0 defeat at home to Cambridge United Development in the Cambs Invitation Cup.

"It gives the players a confidence boost of what our capabilities are," admitted Taylor.

"To go to the runaway leaders and to come out of it knowing that we should have won will give us massive confidence.

"It's now about taking that confidence and level of performance into our next two games."

Title favourites Rugby took a 42nd minute lead through captain Loyiso Recci's bullet header, but March skipper Danny Emmington curled in a brilliant free-kick via the underside of the crossbar from 25 yards to equalise five minutes after the break with his seventh of the season.

Jack Friend put the visitors in front on the hour, following up on Matt Hill's save to notch his 18th of the campaign, before Edwin Ahenkorah equalised with a controversial deflected effort five minutes later.

"It was a really good performance," said Taylor.

"We've just been sent the footage of the second goal they scored to equalise and it was an absolute shambles.

"They've been given a goal from a corner where it has been cleared off the line and it's nowhere near over it, but the linesman has given it.

"At 2-1 up we had more opportunities to go 3-1 ahead before they were given a goal to get a draw.

"It was frustrating from that side of things but I was really happy with the levels we showed on Saturday.

"I also said to the lads after the game against Cambridge United Development that they couldn't have given anymore."

The Hares have also completed the signing of full-back Kieran Pledger from Oakham.

"We've heard really good things about him and Seb (Hayes) knows what he is all about.

"We're looking forward to having him here and he's looking forward to the challenge of playing at a higher level.

"We needed to bring in a new signing as we had eight players missing through injury against Cambridge United Development.

"We are quite thin in terms of numbers so we had to bring a player in to help with the situation."