LYE Town are hoping to bounce back from two disappointing home draws when they face Highgate United twice in a week.

Town are back at their Stourbridge Road ground on Saturday (3pm) where they are up against their league rivals in the first round qualifying of the FA Vase, before heading to Solihull on Tuesday night for a Midland League clash.

Manager Martin Thomas will not be on the touchline for either Highgate game and was also missing for Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw against Boldmere St Michaels.

But he was in charge of Saturday’s scoreless draw against Rocester – who had only picked up three points prior to the game.

Thomas said: “I’m very disappointed with the result, it was two points dropped at the end of the day, but it was a tough game against a team who put 10 men behind the ball.

“They came here not to get beat. They’ve not had a great start to the season and wanted to stop the rot, we can all understand that.

“We had chance after chance, and in the last 15 minutes we were camped inside their box but couldn’t break down their two banks of four. We played some great stuff at times, but just couldn’t put our chances away.

“They had three big centre halves playing, one as a full back, who were all very good in the air, but give them their due, they did have a few chances to.

“Overall we should have won, but you have these kind of games from time to time.”

It was another disappointing night for Town on Tuesday when, after going in at half time with the score at 1-0, the game ended in another draw.

Chairman Brian Blakemore said it was a typical game of two halves. “We had the better of the first half, went one-nil up, and had a great chance on the stroke of half time to make it two, but we didn’t take it,” he said.

“Boldmere came back into the game in the second half and were probably deserving of their equaliser.

“But they’re a good team and I think if you look at the match overall a draw was a fair result.”

Thoughts are now turning to Saturday’s FA Vase match which, although originally drawn as an away tie, will now be played in Lye.

Blakemore added: “We’ll have our work cut against Highgate this weekend even though their results in the league have been a bit mixed.

“We are expecting a couple of tough games as they’re a very good team and got a great win in the FA Cup on Saturday when they beat Leamington 3-1.”

Kalum Evitts will be missing from the team for some months after picking up a bad injury during Tuesday night’s game.