Newmarket Town set for tough tests against Harleston Town and Soham Town Rangers

Michael Shinn is expecting his Newmarket Town’s side recent upturn in form to face a thorough examination during their next two outings.

Saturday sees Shinn and his players head to Harleston Town (3pm) looking to extend their winning run in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division to five matches.

However, the hosts have been one of the division’s stand-out teams in what is their first ever campaign at Step 5, winning 13 of 22 games to sit in second spot.

The Jockeys, meanwhile, are up to 13th since their positive sequence got under way on Boxing Day.

“It’s a really good to test to show where we actually are at the moment,” said Shinn.

“Are we happy to settle for what we’ve done, just turn up and go through the motions? Or do we want to keep it going? That’s the challenge for us against a really good side.”

And that is followed on Tuesday evening by a rearranged League Challenge Cup tie at home against neighbouring Soham Town Rangers (7.45pm).

Unlike Harleston, it has been a tough campaign so far for the Greens, who are 15th and have already lost both league matches against Newmarket.

Nevertheless, having suffered with bad form themselves this term, Shinn is wary of Soham bouncing back.

“It’s a derby game and obviously it will be nice to beat them three times in a season,” he added.

“They’re in a sticky patch at the moment but they’re a good side and they’ve got good players.

“I always said to our boys when we were struggling that these bad runs don’t last forever and they’ll be thinking the same thing. It will change for them at some point and we’ve got to make sure it isn’t on Tuesday.”

With James Chivers closing in on a return to action, Shinn is close to having a fully fit squad at his disposal minus Joe Robinson, who is due to undergo surgery next month on his cruciate knee ligament injury.

And it is those options that has seen Shinn take a step back from playing in recent weeks, opting instead to remain on the touchline.

“It was tough at times for me personally. I was in the mindset where it felt like nothing was going right,” he said.

“We’d get a player back fit and then another would get injured – things like that. I found myself doing more and more to correct it. I’d do the team talk, do the warm-up, play, do the half-time team talk, play the second half and then do the team talk at the end.

“But with lads coming back from injury and the new signings, I’ve been able to take a little step back and look at things from the outside.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve retired or anything like that, but I don’t need to play right now. I’ll still play if I’m needed but as it stands things are going well as they are.”