HOLLAND FC joint-boss Jon Willis is confident his side can get back on track soon - when they get a run of games and training sessions under their belt.

Postponements meant they only played twice in December - a 0-0 draw against AFC Sudbury Reserves and Saturday’s 3-0 reverse at home to Debenham LC.

In addition, they have only managed to train a handful of times since Willis came on board in late November.

“It’s disappointing but I’m certainly not panicking,” he said.

“We’re just having a few teething problems and much of that is down to the lack of games.

“It’s always hard when a new manager with new ideas comes in because you’re asking the players to do different things - things they haven’t done before.

“It’s bound to take time to settle and adjust and I know that will happen.

“More than anything, we just need to play games because you could tell we were a bit rusty on Saturday.

“You could see we hadn’t played for three weeks.

“In fairness, our first-half performance was pretty good.

“We created so much and could easily have gone in at the break 3-1 up.

“We missed one-on-one chances and also hit the bar.

“But the second half was poor and their second goal took the wind out of our sails.

“I had a horrible feeling at half-time because it’s always a worry when you miss lots of chances.

“It can come back to bite you and, unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.”

Saturday’s match went ahead thanks to the sterling efforts of club officials, including Willis, who spent the entire morning removing water from the Rush Green Bowl pitch.

Otherwise it would have gone the same way as other Thurlow Nunn League call-offs, including the matches involving FC Clacton and Stanway Rovers.

“We were desperate to play, having had several postponements since I joined,” added Willis.

“We’ve only played 17 games and that’s less than everyone else in the division. Several others have played 23 and even 24 matches.”

Holland head to Framlingham Town on Saturday before a home match against Tendring neighbours Little Oakley, in the First Division Knockout Cup, on Tuesday night.

They will assess the fitness of Matt Gray, after the striker was forced to come off with an ankle problem during the early stages against Debenham.