Newark & Sherwood manager Romaine Graham wants strong finish to United Counties League season after reaching Notts Senior Cup final

Romaine Graham has called for a strong league finish to go with Newark & Sherwood’s cup final appearance.

The Highwaymen are through to the Notts Senior Cup final for the second time in three seasons after Kieran Cummings’ hat-trick in a 3-1 win at Radford last week.

It’s one to look forward to for manager Graham and his side but, before that, there are important matters to take care of in United Counties League Premier Division North.

They’re 11th after a 2-1 defeat by play-off contenders Boston Town on Saturday and while a top-five finish is a big ask, there’s still plenty to play for.

“We were really pleased with the performance at Radford,” said Graham.

“It was a really good hat-trick from KC. When he’s locked in, there aren’t many that can stop him.

“It was a dominant performance and we enjoyed the victory but our focus is now back on the league.

“We lost to Boston on Saturday, who are a good team, but we more than matched them.

“I’m kind of steering the boys back to climbing the table.

“We’ve got an outside chance of the play-offs but I do want us to consolidate and get a top-half finish, to give us something to build on for next season.

“There’s the cup final to look forward to but let’s see how high we can finish. There’s still plenty to play for and we have some favourable fixtures coming up.”

A classy free-kick from Luke White cancelled out Boston’s early opener but the visitors scored the winner before half-time.

It was frustrating for Graham, who feels his team need to believe in themselves more at times.

He said: “It’s a great free-kick from Luke and at that point we were quite dominant but fair play to Boston, they actually showed us quite a lot of respect.

“Sometimes I think other teams rate us more than we rate ourselves.

“One thing I’ve said all season is we’ve got to smell blood.

“Boston were there for the taking, we had them on the ropes, but it was almost like we didn’t realise the impact we were having on the game.

“We’ve got to go for the kill when it’s like that but we’ve been done by a sucker-punch and didn’t recover.

“They sat back and we couldn’t break them down.”

The Highwaymen meet landlords Harrowby this Saturday (3pm), with the sides level on points in the table.

It’s the away fixture for Graham’s men, having shared a 2-2 draw earlier this season.

They’ve recently switched to using the away dressing room anyway, so it will feel like a normal game.

“I decided to change dressing rooms when we were on a bit of a bad run,” said Graham.

“As gaffer, apart from putting your boots on, you try and do what you can off the pitch to change something.

“It’s a good set-up at Harrowby but it doesn’t feel like home.

“It’s not our ground so it was a case of let’s get in the away dressing room and try and make it ours.”

Skipper Jamie Goddard returns in midfield after two games away but Cummings is unavailable, having also missed the Boston match.