Swifts reaching for the Star (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Swifts reaching for the Star

8:00am Thursday 23rd August 2012 in Stourport Swifts

SWIFTS boss Rod Brown wants more from his side as they take on Continental Star in the FA Cup preliminary round on Saturday The Walshes Meadow outfit head into the home clash in confident mood as they stretched their unbeaten run to six games in league and cup.

A 3-1 win over Heath Hayes, with Lewis Pountney (2) and Louis Bridges on target, and a 2-2 draw against Studley on Tuesday night mean Swifts are second in the Midland Alliance.

Now they face a Star team who have endured a topsy-turvy week in the the league, beating Studley 4-1 on Saturday before going down to Rocester 4-0 in mid-week.

“We had them watched and apparently once they went 2-0 down against Rocester they basically collapsed,” said Brown. “It’s a big game for us and we’re looking forward to it.

“We’ve got to do a bit more than we did in the second-half against Studley but that will be the learning curve.”

Brown is hoping for an improved display over 90 minutes after being surprised by Studley.

Pountney headed Swifts into the lead as Stourport dominated the first-half, but a slip by Mark Benbow allowed Ross Dempster to level.

Swifts were pushed back by their spirited opponents and fell behind when Matthew Collins scored from Tom Lacey’s corner in the 76th minute.

But Jordan Jonesstabbed home with seven minutes of normal time remaining to ensure Swifts claimed a share of the spoils.

Brown said: “I thought in the first half we played well. We set a good tempo, looked good in the wide areas and hit the post twice.

“In terms of overall pattern of play we were the better side.

“Studley deserved something from the game on their second-half performance and the disappointing thing for me was we dropped the tempo.

“We’re a work in progress, we still need a cutting edge. We have to be more clinical and if that means me going out and finding a striker who can score 25 goals then I need to do it.”

If there’s a definite result from Saturday’s FA Cup clash, Stourport resume the league at Westfields on Monday (3pm kick-off).