MANAGER Mark McLean knows the Christmas present that he wants from his Halstead Town players this year.

The Humbugs head into festive fixtures in Thurlow Nunn League division one south at Wormley Rovers on Saturday and Wivenhoe Town on Boxing Day on the back of a bit of a form stutter.

And McLean wants points to make sure his team head into January still in the heart of the title race.

Having allowed a three-goal lead to be turned into a 3-3 draw by Little Oakley in their previous outing, the Humbugs were beaten 2-1 by leaders White Ensign last weekend, despite taking an early lead and then having more than enough chances to have closed the game out.

A win would have put Halstead back at the top, but the defeat dropped them to third and left them five points in arrears of the leaders and McLean is clear about where he wants his team to be as 2018 comes to a close.

“We have to be in and around where we are now," he said.

“We must be in the mix at the top.

“There are teams coming up with games in hand and we’ll see how they deal with them but we must stay in there.

“Football becomes harder as conditions get worse and things will change.

“It is easier when conditions are fairer, but it becomes more of a lottery when they deteriorate like they did on Saturday.

“We just need to stay in and around where we are at the moment and need to keep accumulating points."

Despite knowing that they would be smarting after the manner of their loss against White Ensign - that came courtesy of a last-minute goal by the leaders - McLean said that he wouldn't allow his players to dwell on the points they had seen slip away in recent weeks.

He added: “You can’t allow it to hit morale if you are going to have success and be in the mix at the end.

“You have to wipe yourself down and go again.

“This one will definitely hurt and it’s one where you wish you had a midweek game to get it out of the system, but we haven’t and we just have to prepare now for another tough game at Wormley Rovers next weekend.

“Every game is important for us now and it will be a different mindset that we go there with now.

“We have to react, pure and simple.

“It puts more pressure on us to accumulate points now."

Halstead took the lead early on against White Ensign as Tom Cook drilled in a shot in the second minute and, while the neither side dominated after that, the Humbugs had chances to extend their lead ahead of half-time.

And they were left to rue not making more of them after the break as, in worsening weather conditions, White Ensign carved out a couple of chances and took them, with their winner coming in the final minute of the 90 to leave Halstead hearts broken.

McLean said: “It’s not a killer blow because there are so many games to play still.

“However, it is damaging for ourselves because it’s at home again and we’ve found a way to beat ourselves.

“There is enough about us to fix it, though.

“I say that every time (we have slipped up) because I like what I have got here, but I want us to be a bit stronger mentally in adverse moments.

“It’s all about character and how they respond.

“Football doesn’t lie – there is no hiding place on a football pitch.

“It will expose your weaknesses and we were exposed in this game.

“But I’m more annoyed for the players than with them.

“They have done that to themselves.

“I didn’t think we were beaten by a better team, but we unravelled ourselves.

“We conceded at a dangerous time, like we did against Oakley, and it was then another late late goal that has really hurt us.

“We should have been 3-0 up by half-time.

“We had so much good work to create chances, but we just didn’t press it home.

“If the players continued doing what they are doing at the start of games, they would absolutely blitz teams.

“However, we keep falling into traps that we have set ourselves.

“It’s another tough one to take.

“We have beaten ourselves again."