MANAGER Mark McLean wants his Halstead Town players to embrace the challenge ahead as the Humbugs head into the real business end of the Thurlow Nunn League division one south season.

Having had a two-and-a-half week break enforced on them after their 7-2 win at Wivenhoe Town on Boxing Day, Halstead were straight back on form with a 1-0 win at Benfleet last weekend.

That kept them third in the division one south table ahead of a trip to Fire United on Saturday and, with everything to play for in the promotion race, McLean doesn't want his players to shy away from what lies ahead between now and the end of April.

He said: "The win at Benfleet makes the break insignificant now and, with 13 games left, I can't wait for what's coming. "I'm really excited about it now.

"Every game will bring its own trials and they will all be difficult as we are a scalp with where we have got ourselves to, but that's what we wanted and we have to go with it.

"How do we deal with it? We embrace it.

"That is the only thing to do.

"I love situations like this and if (assistant manager) Pete (Travers) and myself can breathe that into the players then they will embrace it too.

"We had a strong chat before the game at Benfleet and said to the players that we'd asked them to be in the mix at Christmas.

"They'd done that and that means that everything really does matter now.

"Having a clinical edge is what will be the difference and we have to make sure we have that.

"We've had it so far because we are the league's top scorers and we are in a good place, but we have to take it forward now and be mentally strong.

"There will be moments that don't go our way and we will have to manage that, but we have to stay strong."

Halstead now face another away day on Saturday as they head to Fire United, who they beat 2-1 at home in September.

Their hosts currently lie second from bottom in the table, but McLean insists they will not be underestimated.

He added: "We saw when they came to Halstead earlier in the season that they are capable of playing some beautiful football and I'm surprise really to see them down where they are. "With their ability, they should not be where they are and we're going to have to be good.

"It's a poor pitch to play on and it will have to be effective football that we play, but we have variations in our game and we showed that at Benfleet. "We can cope with different styles and we can mix it up."

McLean said he expected to have a similar squad of players to choose from for the trip to Fire United as the one that travelled to Benfleet last weekend and he added that there were a couple of players coming back into contention after time out.

The Town boss said Charlie Pleace and Marcus Warren stepped up their comebacks from injury by turning out for Halstead Reserves as they won 2-1 at Holland last weekend.

He also felt Garry Burdett was on the right track and he may get important minutes under his belt for the reserves when they head to Witham Town for a Chell Trophy semi-final on Saturday.