Oxhey Jets are taking “small steps” but it is a measure of the progress made under Kevin Christou that the Spartan South Midlands League club are around three weeks ahead of where he’d hoped to be.

Christou took charge at the Boundary Stadium towards the end of September with the club at one of the lowest points in its history.

Jets had been thrashed 10-0 by New Salamis in the Premier Division when some youth team players were needed to fulfil the fixture after a number of senior players had followed former boss Stuart Atkins through the exit door.

Jets lost their first two games following Christou’s appointment but since then the club’s resurgence has been impressive.

The new-look side have lost only once in eight games in all competitions – including a 1-0 victory over New Salamis in their last league fixture – and have taken points off many of the teams towards the top end of the table in that time.

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Following the 6-0 victory over the Coldstream Guards in Saturday’s special Remembrance fixture, Christou reflected on the progress Jets have made inside two months.

He said: “We said to John (Jets general manager John Elliott) when we came in to ignore the first two games. We’re not worried about the first two games, we want to be competitive by game three.

“That gave us two games, four training sessions to get people through the door, a lot of hard work has been done and I think once the boys started to see the way it was going to go they’ve started buying into it a little bit more.

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“The atmosphere has changed, the banter has come into the changing room, the lads are starting to gel off the pitch and I think that’s now showing on the pitch.

“We had a few games where teams really looked at a few results, the New Salamis result, and thought we were going to be an easy target. That sort of helped us in a way, it took the pressure off, and that allowed us to grow into it.”

Clubs may have under-estimated Jets earlier in the season, but Christou knows those days are over given the results his players have been achieving.

“I now think perspectives have changed,” he said. “People are now thinking we’re not that team that’s going to be rolled over.

“I think we’ve taken points off first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, it was only the Harpenden game and that was a bad day at the office [Jets lost 5-1), but we’re taking those small steps.”

Asked if Jets were ahead of schedule, Christou responded: “I think we’re probably three or four weeks in front of where I thought we would be.

“I looked at the league table when I came in and thought if I can get us to 13th, 14th we would be alright, but we went into tenth last weekend.

“We set a target of 12th to 14th for Christmas so we’re a good three weeks of where we thought we could be.”

Jets will be aiming to take more small steps in the right direction on Saturday when they return to league action with a trip to Dunstable Town.