DARREN Manning insists Hullbridge Sports fans can expect a different style of play when AFC Sudbury visit the Ryan’s Heating Stadium tomorrow.

While Sports are unbeaten in their away fixtures so far, the newly-promoted side are yet to pick up a point on home soil.

And Manning will not be playing such expansive football in home fixtures as Hullbridge continue to adapt to life in the Isthmian North.

The Sports boss, who led his side to the Essex Senior League title last term, said: “Assistant manager James Wakeling has had to change my mindset because I want to play free-flowing football and continuously attack when we are at home.

“But we will change our mindset so that we are less open and play in a similar way to how we do when we are away from home.

“The way we decide to play will obviously depend on the players that are available for any given game, but we know that we can’t afford to be too open because we will be punished in this division.

“We have conceded six goals in our first two home games of the season and we can’t keep going at that rate.

“I take full responsibility for that because I am the person who tells the boys to play in a certain way.

“It’s important that we consolidate and ease ourselves into this division because we are still in the early stages of the campaign.”

Manning head into their latest Isthmian North outing having recorded their first ever victory at step four of the non-league pyramid last time out.

Joe Wright grabbed the only goal of the encounter when Sports beat Cambridge City 13 days ago.

And Manning is expecting a tough test this weekend.

“Sudbury are definitely going to be there or thereabouts competing for a play-off place this season,” added Manning.

“We know what to expect from them because they have a very clear philosophy and style of play.

“They are very good at doing what they do and it will be a difficult game for us.

“But this is the type of game that we look forward to and we wanted to win promotion so that we could go head-to-head with teams like Sudbury.

“We come up against another big team every week in this division and we will always be seen as the underdog, but we are relishing every game we have.”

Hullbridge were involved in a friendly against Essex Senior League outfit Hoddesdon Town last weekend.

And, having recorded a comfortable 4-0 victory, Manning is keen to continue picking up positive results.

“We won 4-0 and got everything we wanted out of the game,” admitted Manning.

“I thought that we were very good and I was very happy with the performance.

“The game allowed us to get more minutes into the players’ legs and we also worked on everything we needed to.

“It allowed us to keep the momentum going and we are going into the weekend following three positive games in a row.”