MARTIN Thomas has paid tribute to Lye Town’s supporters who he believes could be vital to his side’s West Midlands League title hopes.

With the season approaching crunch time Thomas says the fans will help his side.

“About 20 or 30 of them went down to Bromyard on a foul, horrible wet night last week, and saw us win 3-0.

“The fans are very important to us at Lye and we try to interact with them as much as we can.

“We have been getting gates around the 100 mark which is great for lads who are enjoying playing in front of that sort of crowd and it certainly gives them a lift.

“We have been attracting people to come and watch us, partly because we are winning but also partly because of the way we play.

“But I also think a lot of people have a soft spot for the Lye, stuck as we are between the football giants of Halesowen and Stourbridge. We’ve been around for a long time and people seem to have an affinity with the club.”

Joint Lye boss Thomas will be hoping for another bumper turnout on Saturday when seventh-placed Dudley Town come calling although given the forecast and the current state of the pitch he feels it is unlikely the game will go ahead.

Tuesday’s home clash with Sporting Khalsa was also postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

However, Lye have faired better than most and have already fitted in 29 league games, whereas Saturday’s opponents have yet to play a competitive game this year.

“Our secretary Paul Roberts has been brilliant,” said Thomas. “We’ve virtually been playing Saturday-Tuesday since August which has really helped and we won’t have a massive backlog at the end of the season.”

The only cloud over the league leaders at the moments is a suspension for Scott Gennard who was sent off against Wolverhampton Casuals at the end of January.

Thomas feels the challenge was a result largely of the conditions: “Scott went sliding in and was sent off but if we are going to play in the sort of conditions we are doing, referees should take that into account, he certainly wouldn’t have been making that sort of challenge on a bone dry pitch.

“The pitch was a bit of a leveller there as it was at Bromyard. It’s not the same for both sides when you are trying to play a passing game.”