MANAGER Mark Ashford is asking his Witham Town players to make sure history repeats itself in the wake of their Bostik League division north draw with Felixstowe & Walton United last weekend.

Witham are due to travel to AFC Sudbury on Saturday looking to get back to winning ways after a run of four games without a victory.

Their draw against Felixstowe gave a welcome point after three back-to-back losses, including their 3-1 defeat by high-flying Aveley the week before, and brought to mind a similar situation in November.

Back then, Witham had also been beaten 3-1 by Aveley and then drew with Felixstowe before going on a run when they took 16 points from their next six games and Ashford would love to see a repeat.

He said: “I said to the players after Saturday's game that the last time we were beaten 3-1 by Aveley in a game that we felt we could have got more from it, we came up against Felixstowe and drew a game that we could have been beaten in.

“After that, we then went six games without getting beaten so let’s do that again.

“We want to finish the season strongly now.

“We have seven games left and there’s a good chance that we could finish much higher up the table than where we are now.

“We’re eight points clear of the relegation zone but the players want to show that we are a much better team than 18th place.

“There is still plenty to play for and we have to finish the season strongly."

Another positive from the game against Felixstowe was the debut of Chinedu Vine as the former Oxford City striker scored on his first Witham appearance and Ashford was pleased to have him on board.

“We’ve had Chinedu come in and it was great to see him score on his debut," he added.

“It’s always nice to have a striker getting an early goal and I think you could see his quality in his time on the pitch.

“He looked a threat up there for us.

“He’s been training with Braintree Town and has come over to us because they don’t feel he’s ready for that level yet and we’ll build his fitness between now and the end of the season.

“He’s a way off 90 minutes of football, but he’s someone who we will enjoy having on board.

“I think we have been lacking the type of striker that he is all season and he’s someone who can hold the ball up at the top end of the pitch and make it stick up there.

“We have him until the end of the season so he’ll be a real asset for us."