Farsley Celtic head coach Clayton Donaldson is looking for a reaction from his side after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against Darlington.

All four of our victories this season have come away from home and The Celts are still winless at The Citadel, a record the management team is keen to put right against Boston United tonight.

“I thought Saturday was an improvement over the Alfreton game,” Clayton said. “We started well, we were attacking and I thought we were unlucky to have a legitimate goal ruled out from Dylan Youmbi.

“I thought the officials were inconsistent throughout the game and that’s a problem we’ve had throughout the season. It sometimes feels like the officials are against us.”

Clayton felt young loanee Connor O’Brien was unfortunate to see red for ‘two fouls and two yellow cards’. “It’s an example of how things are going against us,” he added. “It wasn’t a bad foul and I felt the referee should have just had a word with him, particularly given some of the challenges which went unpunished against us. I don’t think the referee initially realised Connor had already been booked.

“The free kick for their second goal was never a free kick, if anything it was the other way round. The ball took a deflection on the way in, which is the way it’s going for us at the moment. We’re not getting the same treatment as other teams and it needs to be addressed.”

As well as cursing his side’s luck, Clayton pointed to a couple of mistakes that led to the first breakaway goal. “The goal came from our own throw-in. We’d loaded their box with Tom, Rudi and Connor and then we took it short and lost the ball. We got caught out by a sucker punch.

“We had a chat after the game and our decision-making needs to be better,” Clayton added.

“We need to learn from those mistakes. This league is all about fine margins and it’s attention to detail and mistakes which are costing us at the moment. We started slowly against both Brackley and Alfreton and we can’t be giving teams early goals.”

The gaffer felt the team played better and ‘found an extra 10%’ once they were down to ten men and were unlucky to hit the woodwork. Tom Allan also had a good chance, which he put over the bar. “It showed the fight is still there and we are still together as a team.

“We’ve got to keep the belief. We are a good side and a good group of players. We have entered a period where we are playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday until Christmas so we need to roll our sleeves up.

“We believe in what we are doing and we are up for it. The games are coming thick and fast and our fortunes can quickly change, the league table is very tight.

“As I’ve said before, once we’re able to get that first home win I am sure other victories will follow,” Clayton said. “We have a good bunch of players and we know we can turn the corner. That comes with hard work and better decision making.”

Boston United currently sit tenth in the National League North table, just a point away from the playoff places and five above Farsley in what is a tight league table this season.

Since an impressive victory against Chester on September 23, Boston have won just one in their past five league games and exited the FA Cup against Worksop Town.

They’ll be looking for more consistency when they travel to Farsley on Tuesday.

Clayton said the last few games have seen him having to chop and change his side due to a spate of injuries and suspensions. “You’d always prefer to play a settled side week in, week out but that’s just not been possible. It’s been hard to find that consistency but we can’t use that as an excuse.

“We’ve recently brought in five players on loan and we have a lot of games coming up so we will have to rotate the squad. We’ve got missing players coming back into the squad now, and the new arrivals have been like a breath of fresh air and I have been impressed with every single one of them.

“They’re a smashing bunch of lads who are each bringing something to the club, and we have a good balance of experienced and younger players in the squad, which is important.”

• Farsley Celtic entertain Boston United on Tuesday, 7 November at The Citadel, kick off 7.45pm. Admission is by payment at the turnstiles, or you can buy tickets in advance here.