Halstead Town’s focus will be shifting to knockout competitions over the next week but manager Mark Benterman insists they won’t lose sight of their Thurlow Nunn League division one ambitions.

Having moved back up to third in the table with a 2-0 win at King’s Lynn Town Reserves last weekend, the Humbugs are in First Division Knockout Cup action at Diss Town tomorrow, with an Essex Senior Cup third round tie against Tilbury at Rosemary Lane on Tuesday.

They are both competitions that Halstead would like to make progress in, but with promotion being their principle aim this season, Benterman sees their league trip to Ely City the following weekend as having even greater significance.

He said: “We want to win every game and we’ll go to Diss on Saturday knowing that there are only 19 teams in the First Division Knockout Cup and you can soon be in the latter stages of it.

“We’ll go there without a shadow of a doubt looking to be competitive and to win.

“We made it into the semi-finals last year and we want to do as well as we can.

“There’s then the Tilbury game on Tuesday, but to be honest, our main objective has to be the (league) games coming up as we go to Ely as the third of three tough games in a week.

“So there will be changes for the Senior Cup game as I have to make sure people are fresh for Ely.

“I know that may annoy some people but we have to keep looking at the bigger picture this year because the coming games are so important in the league.

“We will approach the game against Tilbury with respect, but we have to keep an eye on the league as well.”