Drury Will Decide On Defensive Changes

Corby Town boss Graham Drury hopes goalkeeper Nathan Thackeray's confidence will not have been dented too badly after he conceded seven at Solihull Moors.

Thackeray, who was making his league debut for the Steelmen in the Blue Square Bet North, was thrust into the firing line after Chris Mackenzie was sold to Alfreton Town.

He endured a nightmare time – as did most of the Steelmen defence – as they were hammered for the second time in three matches.

“We'll have to see how Nathan is and how his state of mind is in training this week,” said Drury.

“He knows a couple of the goals at Solihull were down to mistakes by him but there were others he had no chance with.

“He has made mistakes when he's been playing at Hinckley, Brackley and Stamford but he's also played very well in games too.

“He needs to learn that mistakes at this level can be punished more severely than they can at lower levels.

“It might be that he needs to go out somewhere again and play for a bit to get his confidence back up but there's been no decisions made on that yet.”

To help Thackeray out, Drury and coach Danny Nicholls may look at changing their defensive approach for this weekend's home game against Stalybridge Celtic.

“I said after the game at Solihull that we are going to have to change the way we defend,” continued Drury.

“We have been using a zonal defending plan but it looks like we'll have to come away from that.

“The zonal system worked well when we had the likes of Richard Lavery in the box and Chris Mackenzie in goal.

“But Lavs is still out injured, Mackenzie has gone and Thackeray is not used to that system.

“That's the not the way he's been playing on loan at other clubs and so we need to change to ensure everyone is used to it.

“We'll have to go to man marking now because in the zonal system you need your keeper to come through the bodies and claim the ball.

“Macca used to do that but that's not Nathan's style, he's a different sort of keeper.”

Drury also hopes Lavery will step up his rehabilitation from an ankle injury while Dean West returned to training last night..