The under-23s entertain Holbeach United at the Watson & Hillhouse Stadium on Saturday, 3pm kick-off. With just one win in their last 15 in all competitions for the young Blues, Smye knows while the team is not ‘results-driven’, it does need to pick up points to pull away from near the bottom of the table.

The Blues currently sit 17th in the 20-strong Thurlow Nunn North division.

BLUES V HOLBEACH MATCH PREVIEW HERE

“Over the last seven games there has been an improvement on performances,” Smye said.

“Six of those games have been against teams in the top eight. Of those games, we gave Haverhill Rovers who are flying away with the title, a good game, conceding an added-time winner.

“It was the same against Harwich. Another strong side, currently third, we gave a good account of ourselves, it was just the little mistakes that led to goals conceded, something we can learn from. We just need to try and turn some of our positive performances into positive results.

“I hope the boys are learning from each game. They seem to be learning and developing each week, we probably have more positives in games than negatives. The only thing we would like to turn around to make sure we retain our Step 6 status is to turn some these good performances into good results.”

BLUES V HOLBEACH PROGRAMME HERE

And as regards Holbeach at the weekend, Smye will be hoping for another performance similar to the last time they played the Lincolnshire side – but with a different result.

“We played Holbeach away a little while ago, lost 2-3, again it was a goal conceded in added-on time,” he said.

“Again, we gave a really good account of ourselves. So, hopefully on Saturday we can give another good account of ourselves and a good performance.

“The next few games we are playing teams in and around us in the table. Hopefully the players will take the positives from the teams at the top and take that into their game with confidence and get some results on the board.”