Stafford Rangers manager Chris Brindley has warned his players the team will never get anywhere unless they stop giving the opposition head starts before finding their feet.

The Marston Road men head to Ilkeston in the league tonight after another hard luck story at Corby on Saturday, a 3-2 defeat hardly helped by conceding a Leon Mettam brace inside 10 minutes.

Rangers pulled back two goals in the last 10 minutes but sandwiched in between was Paul Mayo’s 88th minute strike for the home side, consigning the visitors to defeat.

Brindley is under no illusions that his team will have it hard again tonight.

He said: “It’s going to be a tough place to go, but we need to concentrate on ourselves. To be fair to the players, luck has not gone our way at all, but we need to help ourselves as well.

“This team can play some lovely football but, at this level, we can’t give teams these sort of leads.”

The Croby defeat was typical of the form book just lately – in fact, Brindley’s men have conceded first in four out of their last five games.

Now they must pick themselves up for a trip to last season’s Unibond League Premier Division runners-up, in the club’s first ever meeting in the Blue Square North.

Ilkeston will have wind in their sails after stunning Tamworth in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round on Saturday, a 2-0 home win setting up entry into the first round proper for the first time in a decade and another Blue Square Premier team with a trip to Cambridge.

But the Rangers boss wants his side to bring the hosts crashing back down to earth, but knows it won’t happen if they continue to leak early goals.

Brindley said: “We are playing well but if we keep giving teams one and two goal head starts we are never going to get anywhere.

“We have worked hard in training on set pieces and defending generally, but with those lapses in concentration are giving us mountains to climb.”

Rangers are hopeful defender Manny Udoji will recover from a sore hamstring and Lee Evans will take his place in goal despite taking another ankle knock on Saturday, with other keeper Bill Lumley still out.