WHILE Halstead Town will head into the second part of their Thurlow Nunn League division one south double-header with confidence on Friday night, manager Mark McLean is warning against complacency from his players.

The Humbugs face a Friday night trip to Braintree Town Reserves tonight hot on the heels of beating the Young Irons 4-1 at the Milbank Stadium last weekend as they went back to the top of the table.

McLean felt it was a game that his team were in complete control of and knows they will head into the return show at Cressing Road in good spirits, however, he is warning his players that Braintree, who have parted company with manager Anton Smith this week, will be gunning for revenge.

“We have said to the boys that these situations when you play teams twice in quick succession are fraught with danger,” said McLean.

“We were so comfortable in that first game and that will be fresh in our minds, but it will also be fresh in theirs and they will want to correct that.

“Double-headers don’t always pan out consistently because teams will want to set right the wrongs from before.

“We won’t allow that with the momentum that we have, but we do have to just be aware of it.”

McLean was full of praise for his players’ performance in the league clash last weekend and he was pleased that they did not dwell on their Thurlow Nunn League Cup exit from their previous outing in midweek.

He added: “It was really good against Braintree; a complete performance really.

“We looked solid defensively and I know they scored when it was 3-0 to wake us up a bit, but (Halstead goalkeeper) Jack Cherry had nothing to do.

“I felt we looked very comfortable from early on.

“Braintree are an athletic team so we had to stay concentrated, but we got the cup game out of our system.

“It was important to get back to what we are good at and the performance was really strong.

“We had a long chat and frank discussion before the game against Braintree about the cup tie against Holland.

“There had been a bit of negativity after the cup result but we made it clear that we have utilised the cups this year to get players minutes because of the problems we have had with having players out.

“Our bread and butter is the league and that was always my primary concern and I explained that was the case.

“We wanted to do well in the cups, but they have stood us in good stead to be strong for the league.

“That was the case this time as well and we got back to basic and picked up another good win on Saturday.”