GIFTON NOEL-WILLIAMS has praised his Burnham players for the way they are “digging deeper and deeper” in a bid to turn their fortunes around.

“I’ve explained to them that when you are down at the bottom things don’t come easy,” said Blues’ new manager.

“You don’t get easy goals, deflected goals and the rub of the green. You’ve got to dig deep, work for every goal and for every point.

“I’m in no doubt that the players here are working harder and harder to make things happen, and then see where that takes them.

“I’m proud of the boys for what they’re trying to do. It’s just a case of showing that bit more quality.”

Speaking after Blues’ 2-0 defeat by Bracknell in the Floodlit Cup on Tuesday, Noel-Williams revealed: “When the boys came off they were a bit frustrated because maybe for the first time we deserved to get something out of the game.

“We moved the ball better than they did and we matched them physically.

“We fought hard to win the ball. The only disappointment was the lack of the end product. We needed to get in more shots and crosses.

“On the flip side, it’s very nice when the opposition are talking about how well we played compared to when they played us before.”

Bracknell manager and former Blues boss Mark Tallentire said Burnham had “improved tenfold since we last played here.” That was a 5-2 league defeat a little over a month ago.

Noel-Williams is still looking to strengthen the squad, admitting: “If you look at it realistically, we’re still a losing squad, so we would like to strengthen it, but it's a matter of bringing the right people in.”

He concluded: “We're going to keep smiling and keep working hard. We have two home games coming up on Saturday (v Ascot) and Tuesday (v Ardley), so we will keep digging deep and see what our performances bring us.”