MICHAEL JONES has urged his team-mates to stand up and be counted as Cefn Druids attempt to haul themselves off the bottom of the Cymru Premier during the second phase of the campaign.

The league has split in two and Druids find themselves four points adrift of safety at the end of phase one, although no teams are expected to be relegated due to Cymru North and South not taking place.

Since the top-flight resumed following lockdown, Druids took just one point from six games and manager Bruno Lopes left his role after six months at The Rock.

Head of coaching Jayson Starkey has taken temporary charge of the Ancients and goalkeeper Jones, who played for Wrexham, is hoping for an improvement in the Play-off Conference which kicks-off with tomorrow's home match against Haverfordwest.

"I don't think losing the manager has had much of an effect because Jayson was part of the coaching staff under Bruno and the club as a whole has adopted the style of football and direction it wants to go in," said Jones.

"The good thing is Jayson has got the experience of being coach with the team and knowing what is needed to get results in the league.

"It is a different managerial style to Bruno but still gets the message across and it is down to us as players on the pitch to carry out that message and make sure we get the result that we want.

"We have got to stand up and be counted."

Jones admits the season has not panned out how Druids hoped.

After taking just one point from the opening six matches, a first victory came when the Ancients beat Caernarfon 2-1 on October 9 but another six-game winless run followed.

Druids then secured back to back wins against Haverfordwest and Flint before losing to Barry when the campaign was put on hold just before Christmas after the country moved into a tier-four lockdown.

Jones felt Druids were showing signs they had turned the corner and the break came at the wrong time.

"We had different ambitions when the season started," said Jones.

"Everyone was excited with what was going on at the club and the direction the club wanted to go with the style of football they wanted to play.

"As results have shown, it never went the way we wanted it to but before the last lockdown, it looked like we were starting to click as a team and everyone knew their roles.

"We picked up a couple of wins but even before that, I think there were four or five games where we performed really well but didn't get the result.

"We just didn't have that rub of the green or didn't take that one chance, but it was in contrast to the start of the season.

"It feels like the lockdown has affected things a little bit because you have taken a step back to go again."