Happy together

10:00am Thursday 31st January 2008

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IT'S smiles all-round at Dudley Town as the Robins revolution under the new management pairing of Ian Rowe and Rob Perks continues to gather pace.

Town defeated rivals Tividale 2-1 last Saturday thanks to goals from Perks and Craig Beresford.

The big win means the Robins are now sitting pretty in the top six of the West Midlands Premier Division.

Victory was made even sweeter as it was former boss Dean Whitehouse in the opposition dug-out as he took control of Tividale for the first time.

Vice chairman Steve Austin has been blown away by the feel-good factor engulfing the club.

He said: "Dudley Town is just a great club to be involved with at the moment.

"Ian and Rob have done a brilliant job and the atmosphere they have created within the dressing room is fabulous.

"It was a big win for us on Saturday and a fully deserved one at that."

The rocking Robins feeling is having such an impact thatformer players are on the phone asking to come back according to Austin He added: "We are now getting calls from former players from clubs in higher divisions asking to come back, which has got to be good news for us."

One player back at the club is Christep Makris and he is likely to be in the squad for this Saturday's trip to Pelsall Villa (3pm kick-off).

Tividale will be looking for a positive response to the derby day defeat when they welcome Bewdley to the Beeches on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

Gornal Athletic boss Simon Williams (pictured) heralded the return to action of star centre-half John Richards as another step in the right direction for his in-form side.

The Peacocks picked up another three points last weekend after disposing of lowly Ledbury at the Garden Walk Stadium to ease their relegation worries.

The win, and a start for Richards after a lengthy absence due to a broken metarssal, made it a prefect day for the manager.

He said: "We are playing well at the moment as 12 points from a possible 15 shows.

"I always believed once we started to get some of our experienced lads back on the pitch the results would follow.

"It was great to see John back in action because he's a big player for us."

Williams is keen to add more experience to his squad after Ryan Edmunds and Lee Pardoe decided to move on to Bobbington and Lye Town respectively.

The manager is waiting for a response from a couple of players although it is unlikely anything will be done it time for Saturday's tough away day against promotion-chasing Wednesfield.

Williams added: "We will go there full of confidence following this nice little run we've been on and will go there with nothing to fear."

Dudley Sports management duo Paul Blakeley and Neil Perks are confident their young side will be able to bounce back from a top-of-the-table defeat away at Wednesfield last weekend.

Sports could have moved top of the West Midlands Premier Division with a win but the 1-0 loss sees them stay in second spot with Wednesfield only one point behind them.

Despite the result Blakeley was happy with the overall performance, he said: "Basically we played very well in a competitive match.

"The problem on Saturday was that we just didn't have that killer instinct in front of goal.

"We had two cleared off the line and missed two one-on-ones and inevitably you will pay for missed chances.

"We are still all upbeat because you must remember that was only our fifth loss of the season."

Sports will look to get back to winning ways when they host Ludlow at Hillcrest Avenue this Saturday (3pm kick-off).