DESPITE them having seen just 15 minutes of competitive action in the last four weeks, Halstead Town manager Mark McLean trusts his players to be switched on when they make a long-awaited return at Norwich CBS tomorrow.

Halstead were handed the latest in a growing list of frustrations last weekend when frost proved to be their enemy and led to a postponement of their Thurlow Nunn League division one game against Framlingham Town at the Milbank Stadium.

Having had the previous game called-off due to a waterlogged pitch at Debenham LC and only completed quarter of an hour of their game at Swaffham Town the week before as a floolight failure caused an abandonment, the Humbugs have been left kicking their heels since their last full outing on January 20.

That game saw them beat Downham Town 3-1 and they now have up to six games in hand on other sides in the league and McLean is hoping that almost an entire unscheduled month off doesn’t work against his players.

He felt they had found their form before the lean spell began and has tried to keep them sharp by arranging in-house training games on artificial pitches, but the Humbugs boss knows their fitness is still good and trusts them to be fully ready when they head to Norwich CBS tomorrow.

He said: “The hard frost that had been predicted hit us last weekend and we just couldn’t get enough time for sun to get on the pitch for the game to go ahead.

“That dictated things to us and it was a shame, but there you go.

“Hopefully Norwich will give us the chance to get going again as I believe it’s a really nice facility up there.

“We have to be ready and we had another in-house game this week that got the legs going for the boys rather than just having training.

“It was good for all the boys as you could see there was a bit of rustiness in the first 20 minutes.

“It’s four weeks without a competitive game now and that’s not ideal, but there’s not a lot that we can do about it.

“I think it’s been indicative of our season in a way as we have never really fully got momentum going in our favour. That’s mostly been due to injuries at important times so we couldn’t get the momentum going so while we had some very good moments there were some when it wasn’t so good, but this has been tough.

“I did think we had got some momentum before these games were called off as we seemed to have got going well, so I’m hoping this won’t have stopped that.

“What I will say is that it has reignited a love for the game; Saturdays without football are devoid of interest for me and I think we can use that feeling as a strength as everyone in the group has missed it.

“We can use that feeling as a positive, but I am mindful of how we go into the game at Norwich CBS.

“We have to make sure our warm ups are really intense and they are switched on.

“I really liked Norwich when we played them earlier in the season and I think they are a great addition to the league.

“They have proved they are very competitive all over the park and we know they have dangers all over the park, so we must be switched on from the start.

“I think it will take care of itself, though, as we have a good group who look after themselves well and we’ll find that momentum again.

“I have never had any fears for the fitness levels of my players as we did a lot of work on that in the early part of the season, but they will need that now to get going again.”