MARK HAWKES was delighted to see his side hit the heights of third place in the Conference South – albeit for 24 hours – but warned there is plenty of hard work ahead.
Saturday's 6-2 home victory against Farnborough, following New Year's Day's 2-0 victory at big-spending Ebbsfleet United, gave the Clarets' play-off hopes a real shot in the arm, but Hawkes is refusing to get carried away by the plaudits coming his side's way.
"It's nice to see Chelmsford City up there when you look in the paper," he said. "It's better to be third from top than third from bottom.
"But there's four months of football ahead of us and some big games of football. We've got to play Boreham Wood here, Bromley here, Basingstoke and Havant here. We've got to go to Gosport – some very big games.
"Teams have got to come here and they won't be fancying it. We're on a good roll. Let's enjoy what we're doing at the moment without getting too carried away.
"People that know me, know that I don't get too despondent when we lose or too over the top when we win."
Hawkes paid tribute to the supporters who helped clear the rain-hit Melbourne Park pitch, with the game in doubt. The referee allowed the club to delay the kick-off until 3.15pm to provide extra time to sponge up water in the problem areas.
"The fans did tremendously well getting the water off the pitch," he said. "At 2.30 it didn't look like it would go ahead, so credit to them.
"Credit to the players for getting the points. That's all I wanted and that's all I could have asked for and we've achieved our objectives."
The City boss also revealed that after four games in eight days he was going to give the players a rest before being able to get some training sessions in ahead of Saturday's long trip to Weston-super-Mare, who moved above Farnborough into 18th with a 3-2 victory over Sutton United on Sunday.
"We'll give the players a bit of time off. They won't come in until the middle of the week," he said. "Knowing my lot, they'll go out for a run in the next couple of days and be in the gym. We've got seven glorious days to get some tired legs fresh again and ready for a long trip to Weston."
