Newmarket Town on an upward trajectory after posting fourth straight Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division victory

Captain James Seymour believes that a number of contributing factors have been behind Newmarket Town’s recent upturn in results.

It has been far from a pleasing season so far for the Jockeys, who have spent large parts of it languishing towards the bottom end of the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division table.

In mitigation they have been riddled with injuries, leaving boss Michael Shinn to delve into the club’s youth set-up, yet Seymour has conceded that the senior players who remained fit should have been performing better.

However, having now won their last four league matches – including Saturday’s 4-0 triumph at Lakenheath – there is some significant light appearing at the end of the tunnel.

And Seymour has attributed the improvement to a host of different reasons.

He said: “It’s been a really frustrating season. We haven’t had the side we’ve always wanted because of a lot of injuries but that’s a boring excuse. It’s football and nobody wants to hear about that.

“We’ve had to bite our tongue, ride it out and know that once the players started to come back things would improve.

“It’s been a culmination of things. Key players returning from injury, but we’ve also added some very good signings to the group as well.

“We’ve also got Steve Barrett back on the coaching team and anybody that knows Steve will tell you how good of a coach he is and what a great bloke he is. He’s very infectious around the group and has lifted us.

“I think us as a group of players have also demanded better standards. Even with all of the injuries the senior lads knew what we were producing wasn’t good enough. Being as low as we were is not somewhere the club should ever be and we know that.

“And the young lads are also getting better each week. They’ve been fantastic for us in a tough run and they’re improving all the time.”

As skipper, Newmarket’s struggles this term have had a big impact on Seymour. Between early October and the start of December they won just one game from 12 in all competitions, and it is during periods like that the former Mildenhall Town and Ely City player did plenty of soul searching.

“I’m enjoying being the captain but it does mean you’re constantly taking responsibility, especially when it’s going wrong,” he added.

“You look at how things could improve and runs like that do make you question yourself.

“You probably do feel it a little bit more as a captain but I like that responsibility.”

With a quartet of wins behind them, Newmarket, who are without a game this weekend, have moved themselves up to 13th and are within three points of the top 10.

But even though the top half is now in their sights, Seymour is not setting any major targets.

“When you come through the sort of run we have I don’t think we’ll be making any huge targets about finishing positions,” he said.

“It’s one of those where we’re not going up and we’re not going down.

“We want to finish as strong as we can and hopefully set some good foundations that means we start next season really well.

“One target would be to have a good run in the League Cup, but other than that we’ll be taking it a game a time.”