Tomorrow afternoon, Verwood Town make the trip to face sixth-placed Sherborne Town Reserves in the Dorset Premier League, and they’ll know they are stepping into one of the league’s most unpredictable fixtures. On paper, Sherborne sit comfortably in the upper half of the table, but in reality, Verwood manager Ricky Barton is well aware that reserve football teams rarely follow the script.

“It’s difficult to know exactly what you’re going to get,” Barton admitted. “They’re a reserve side, so sometimes they’ll have first-team players dropped in for minutes or coming back from injury. That’s why their results are so up and down.”

It’s a familiar challenge for many teams across the league. However, it also adds an extra layer of complexity for Verwood, which is still trying to find its feet under relatively new management. Barton took over The Potters towards the end of October last year, and Sherborne were among one of his earliest opponents, in which they won 2-1. That experience, he believes, offers a useful insight ahead of Saturday’s contest.

“When we played them before, it was fairly comfortable,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean this weekend will be the same. They’ve had games where you think they’ll win comfortably, and they get beaten, and others where you expect them to lose and they pick up a result.”

What does remain consistent, however, is Sherborne’s approach. Regardless of who might be selected, Barton expects a direct style built around width, early crosses and aggressive second-ball play.

“They’ll look to get the ball wide early and cause chaos in attacking areas,” he explained. “They want crosses into the box, they want second phases, and they want to pick up loose balls. The question is how well they execute that, and that depends on who’s available.”

For Verwood, the challenge is clear. Deal with the pressure, manage unpredictability and impose their own identity during the game. This identity is something which Barton has been working on to establish since arriving at the club four months ago, particularly against the history of difficulty in recent times.

“When we first came in, the feeling around the club was quite negative,” Barton reflected. “There was almost an expectation that every game was going to be tough, and that if we conceded, we’d probably lose.”

It is a mindset that he believes has developed over time, shaped by a run of negative results. Verwood had won just five games in a calendar year before Barton arrived, and the psychological toll was evident.

“There was an embedded feeling that when things went against us, that was it, and you’d see real deflation,” Barton said.

Changing that mentality has been as important as any tactical decision. Barton pointed to an initial bounce once taking over at the club, which was driven by players fighting for the shirt, but he knew that sustained improvement would require a sense of resilience and belief.

Thankfully, signs of that are beginning to appear. Recent performances, while not always being reflected in results, suggest a sense of the squad growing stronger both physically and mentally.

“I do feel like we’ve turned a corner,” Barton says. “That feeling of ‘we’ve just conceded so we’re definitely going to lose’ has started to subside. There’s a more positive atmosphere around the group now.”

A key example of this came away at league leaders Blandford, a match in which could easily have been unravelled. Early errors put Verwood under pressure, and a red card left The Potters playing the final thirty minutes with a man down. In previous years, Barton believes the scoreline could have spiralled out of control.

“That could have been six or seven, he admitted. “But we battled. Even at 3-0 down, we kept fighting until the final whistle.”

While a 3-0 defeat may not feel positive, Barton sees it as a sign of progress.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he said. “It showed us that the squad is prepared to battle, even when it’s difficult. That’s going to be incredibly important moving forward.”

Those building blocks are now being paired with work on the training pitch. Barton and his staff are in the process of implementing a playing style which is tailored to the current squad, while also integrating seven or eight new players into the squad.

One area of focus is Verwood’s attacking threat.

“We’ve not been effective enough in the final third,” Barton explained. “We’re not getting into those areas often enough, and we’re not sustaining pressure when we do.”

In recent times, Verwood have relied on counter-attacking football without being fully set up to maximise those moments. Barton believes that the solution lies in increasing activity higher up the pitch and creating more opportunities for chances.

“We want more actions in the final third,” Barton said. “More situations and more opportunities. If we can do that, the goals will come at some point.”

It’s a process that will take time, particularly with so many new faces and tactical adjustments. Barton is realistic about the bigger picture.

“There’s still an awful lot of work to do,” he admitted. “I don’t think we’ll really see the full fruition of what we’re trying to do until we’ve had a proper pre-season, but the lads are buying into it, and that’s really important.”

In the short term, attention turns to tomorrow afternoon and the importance of setting the tone early. Playing against a Sherborne side which is capable of punishing mistakes, Barton is clear about what he wants to see from the first minute.

“The first five or ten minutes are massive,” he said. “You have to start fast, be aggressive, and be on the front foot.”

For Verwood, starting strong would allow them to stay competitive and grow into the game.

“If we can get off on the right foot and still be in the game after that first twenty minutes, it puts us in a good position,” Barton said.

There is no illusion about the difficulty of the task. Sherborne’s league position reflects their quality, and reserve sides always carry an element of the unknown.

As Barton puts it, “If we compete, battle and stay true to what we’re working towards, the results will start to follow.”

Tomorrow’s trip away to Sherborne may be unpredictable, but for Verwood Town, it’s another chance to prove that the corner they believe they have turned is more than just any old feeling.