Halstead Town will be single-minded in their pursuit of victory on their trip to Downham Town tomorrow.

With the Humbugs pushing for Thurlow Nunn League division one promotion this year, manager Mark Benterman knows three points and nothing less must be his team’s objective.

And the Halstead boss doesn’t mind how they achieve that.

He admitted that his team may not have been at their best when only putting a single goal past lowly Needham Market Reserves last weekend, but said the end result was still the same as if they’d scored eight or nine goals against the bottom side.

Benterman said: “It could have been more then just one-nil, but we still got the three points and that’s what matters.

“If Yarmouth lose to Wivenhoe on Saturday and we beat Downham, we could be four points off the promotion spots and there are a big 17 games to come for us in the league as well as the (First Division Knockout) Cup semi-final at Stowmarket.

“So it really is exciting times for us and we are looking to push on now.

“We head to Downham, which can be a difficult place to go, looking only for three points.

“That’s all we can look for.

“You don’t get points for playing well and losing; you have to give everything for 90 minutes and collect the points however you can.

“Playing fancy football on the boggy pitches that we have at the moment does not happen and the most important thing is the three points.

“It doesn’t matter how it comes, it’s three points.

“If you get goals and a great performance on top of that, then great, but the mindset has to be completely about the three points.”

Halstead come into the game at Downham knowing that they beat them in the quarter-finals of the First Division Knockout Cup three weeks ago, but Benterman insists that they won’t be under-estimating the threat that their hosts pose.

He added: “We beat Downham in the quarter-final recently and while it was one-nil, it could have been eight-nil, however, we won’t take them lightly.

“We will be taking a very strong squad and we expect three points as we know we have a job to do.”

Ricky Spriggs is unavailable for the trip due to personal commitments, as is Tom Cook, while Jordan Hutchings is suspended and Tom Holdstock has gone on a month’s loan to Witham Town.