Newmarket Town manager Michael Shinn keen to address side’s dip in form in Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division

Michael Shinn is determined to ensure that Newmarket Town’s recent dip in form does not ‘rumble on’.

The Jockeys made an eye-catching start to the current campaign and have spent much of it jostling for the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division summit with Mildenhall Town.

However, Shinn’s side collected just three points from the 12 on offer during the festive period, which in turn has seen Mildenhall open up a five-point advantage with two games in hand.

But Shinn is adamant that he will leave no stone unturned in a bid to get his team back on track – even if that means moving some players on and bringing in fresh faces.

“We’ve been missing two or three important players but we’ve built a squad that we believed could cope with that,” said Shinn.

“We’ve done well up until this point and we’d have definitely taken being in this position at this stage if you’d offered us it at the start of the season.

“There’s no panic stations, but we want to stay where we are and push on.

“I won’t let this rumble on like it perhaps has done previously. In the past maybe I’ve been too loyal and that has not helped our cause.

“When teams go for titles and promotions, sometimes players can’t handle that pressure and it’s down to me as a manager and us as a management team to work out if we have anyone in the squad like that.

“If we have to make changes we will because we don’t want to settle for what we’ve done so far.”

The additions have already started with the arrival of Harleston Town’s Josh Wells, who has been recruited to help plug a leaky defence in recent weeks.

Newmarket have conceded 14 goals in their last six games across all competitions, but Shinn is hopeful that the addition of Wells – along with some key players returning from breaks over Christmas – will help to tighten things up again.

“What this run has shown is the importance of Andy Ballester and Jake Eady,” added Shinn.

“They’ve both been away over Christmas and that is two of our back four and after James Young (goalkeeper) joined, we had a good run of clean sheets.

“We probably do leave ourselves a little open at times with the way that we bomb forward, but we won’t be changing how we play because we get a lot of joy from it.

“We just need to get back to defending how we were earlier in the season and Josh’s arrival will help with that.”

Shinn also revealed that he is likely to be without the services of leading goalscorer Josh Lee for the next four to six weeks. The forward is set to undergo surgery on a knee problem.

Newmarket, who drew 3-3 at home with Woodbridge Town last weekend, will be in action at the Tristel Stadium again on Saturday when they host Dereham Town (3pm).

And that is followed on Tuesday by a trip to Soham Town Rangers for a rearranged Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup tie (7.45pm).

Looking ahead to the Soham clash, Shinn said: “The cup is really important to us. On a few occasions over the years we’ve had some near misses in the cup, lost semi-finals we shouldn’t have and gone out on penalties.

“I feel like we need to get a trophy over the line as a group so we’ll be taking it seriously and naming a side that we believe can win the game to get into the next round.”