HALSTEAD Town manager Mark McLean says a break in action has definitely not come at a good time for his resurgent team.

Having seen a number of players return to action after injury lay-offs and been able to put three back-to-back Thurlow Nunn League division one south defeats behind them, the Humbugs have regained their mojo over the last seven days.

They put the breaks on a slip in league form with a 2-1 win against May & Baker last Friday and followed that with a First Division Knockout Cup 3-0 triumph against Haverhill Borough in midweek.

Those wins have placed McLean's team into the third round of the cup and back up to second in division one south, however, they now have a frustrating hiatus to deal with as they do not now have a game until a trip to Holland FC on October 18.

McLean would love for his buoyant players to press on this weekend and said he had tried to arrange a division one south fixture with a couple of sides, but that had proved equally frustrating and he will be looking to maintain the feelgood factor with some hard training sessions and a team bonding event this week.

“It’s really not a good time for us to be having a break," said McLean.

“We tried to get a competitive league game put in on Saturday but it just wasn’t possible.

“So we’re left with just training, which I’m gutted about.

“A game would really be good for us because the buzz is back there with us now.

“The group is back.

“We’ve won back-to-back games and we’re still in two cup competitions so I’m really looking forward to moving forward now.

“I have a group of players who are fit and raring to go.

“We’ll train twice before going to Holland, which we know will be a tough game, but we’ll be looking forward to it."

McLean said the only players he had missing now were Charlie Pleace, Tom Cook and Nick Miller and one positive from having a break may be that they have more time to recover.

However, he was pleased to have the bulk of his squad back and felt the quality that he knew was there showed through in two good results in the last week.

McLean added: “We started a bit tentatively (against May & Baker) on Friday, but I expected that because we were very fresh in our comeback and it’s a case of building confidence.

“I don’t care where you play or what level you are at, confidence is low after losses or having a lack of game time and you need to recreate that.

“So I expected a slow start on Friday – not in the quality but in the intensity – so when we got a grip of it, that was very pleasing.

“And I said to them on Tuesday, from what you created from minute 20 against May & Baker, make sure you start with that against Haverhill (Borough).

“We knew if we could start with that intensity, then they would face a very different side from the one they did a few weeks ago (in the FA Vase) because we are very good side.

“We had nine missing when we played Haverhill in the Vase.

“The starting line-up wasn’t a million miles away, but we had Jack Cherry, Jake Brown and Chris Harris this time and that’s three key players down the spine of the team.

“But the difference was also in the bench and we had players like Ricky Gardner to come on this time and you could see what he brings and there were Callum Vincent and Jamie Baker.

“We had the intensity I wanted, although we did still have to work our way through moments that they had as they had their dangers.

“They have pace either side and we needed to close that down, but once we did, then we totally controlled the game.

“It’s not an arrogance, but I felt at half-time that we would go on and win the game.

“My only fear coming into half-time, even though we were in control, was that their dangers weren’t getting shut down quickly enough.

“I would take 0-0 at half-time, but the important thing was to get them in so we could shut down the dangers that were still there.

“I just knew that, as long as we shut them down, we would go on to win the game with how we were playing and that’s what we did extremely well.

“It really should have been by more."