North Ferriby United manager Billy Heath is relieved to have got through the first three weeks of the season unscathed.
With four wins and a draw from their five games played, the return of 13 points from a possible 15 sees the Villagers three points clear at the top of the Conference North.
The start of the season is always a busy schedule and with five matches in 22 days, Heath is delighted to have only dropped two points.
Having picked up a 1-0 win over Harrogate on Monday, it was their third 1-0 of the season, leading to fans stealing Arsenal's song and changing it to '1-0 to the Ferriby'.
And Heath has challenged his players to build on the fantastic start and stay ahead of the rest for as long as they can, starting tomorrow at Worcester.
"The first month of the season is always tough," he told the Mail.
"To be three points clear is credit to the players who did brilliantly to back up the win at Boston last Saturday with a win against Harrogate.
"They were disappointed with dropping two points against Gloucester City and wanted to put things right.
"They did that with two wins over a very difficult Bank Holiday weekend."
Heath was forced to change from a 4-4-2 formation last Saturday because of the late unavailability of Dean Lisles.
But his side have taken to the new formation a lot better than Louis Van Gaal's Manchester United.
"Look at the problems United are having playing the 3-5-2 formation," Heath said.
"We lost our full-back Dean Lisles with a bruised foot at 9.30am on Saturday and had to go with three at the back.
"It was a big gamble as we'd only played 45 minutes in that formation in pre-season. Thankfully, the players adapted well."
