BILLERICAY Town manager Craig Edwards is baffled at criticism being levelled at his new-look side.
The Blues made it four wins in five games on Monday night with a 2-1 win at Hendon in what Edwards described as a "fantastic game".
But that came on the back of a 1-0 loss to lowly Carshalton on Saturday, and Edwards – whose side were relegated from the Conference South last season – is unhappy at the critics of his men.
"I've read some of the criticism of the boys and it's just pathetic," he said. "We're a young side, we've changed virtually all the personnel and brought in a very young side.
"We've changed the system, we've changed the way we play, we play some really exciting football.
"We might not win every game but we're improving with every game.
"We play great, entertaining football but obviously you can't please everyone."
The entertainment the Blues are capable of serving up was superbly illustrated in the win at Hendon.
Ricky Sappleton – who had been sent off in the dying stages at Carshalton – grabbed both goals in the opening 11 minutes, and Edwards insisted it could have been even more.
"It was a magnificent win," he added. "I thought we were tremendous.
"It was a marked improvement on Saturday. I thought they were as good as any side we've played this year.
"We've played the top team and we've played Carshalton who were one from the bottom and I've seen no one who's blown me away and I've seen no whipping boys – there's a fag paper between the lot of them.
"I thought Hendon were a very, very exciting team. I had a good chat with their manager after the game, he's a great up and coming manager and I thought they played some fantastic football and we did as well.
"It's not often as a manager that you can really enjoy a game because usually you are so engrossed in it, what's going wrong, what's going right, but it was a great game of football.
"We scored two superb goals, we hit the post three times and their keeper's pulled off three unbelievable saves.
"It was such an open and attacking game, the surface was good, it was quality and to come away winning it, I was absolutely delighted.
"We've had three away games in a week, we've got six points from them and that's a great return."
Town now head to Southern League side St Albans in the FA Cup second qualifying round on a high after that win.
And Edwards said: "We will be big underdogs but we go into it in great confidence.
"This is our fourth away game in a row and if we can take the form we've shown in the others into that, then there's no reason why we can't cause an upset."
