HEAD coach Greg Goodfellow is backing Chinnor Colts’ ‘band of brothers’ mentality to pay dividends once again as they target a national semi-final.

Kingsey Road plays host to their last-eight tie against Olney on Sunday, with victory taking the side a step closer to making club history.

No youth side has won the National Colts Cup at Chinnor, but head coach Goodfellow, who also plays scrum half for the first team, believes the current crop are capable of going all the way.

A 20-16 victory over Bishop’s Stortford at the beginning of the month saw them reach the quarter-finals and the Scot believes the togetherness of the squad has been key to the run.

He said: “There’s a real want and desire amongst the players and that’s something I’ve not experienced a lot.

“I don’t call them a team, but a band of brothers.

“Hopefully that hard work ethic they have is what will take them to the final of this cup.”

Goodfellow added: “This season has been great, but we’ve not achieved anything yet.

“We’ve got to the last eight of the competition and for a lot of people that might be a great achievement.

“But until we make a final we can’t say we’ve achieved something and at the moment it is just the next round.

“The boys understand that and that’s a good thing, they are not getting ahead of themselves.”

The team were crowned National Colts Cup U17s South West champions in 2016.

And Goodfellow, who became head coach last year, believes one reason for the continuation of that success is their defensive prowess.

He is hoping that will come to the fore once again this weekend, while they aim to use the home crowd to their advantage.

Goodfellow said: “We’re pleased to have another home tie and we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance to get to a semi-final.

“It’s not any other game, but we have to approach it like it’s another rugby game.

“There will be a few more people watching, but that gives me an opportunity to see if we as a squad can handle pressure.”

He added: “They’re a good bunch and some of them will be the future of first team rugby at Chinnor.

“If we can get as many people as possible here to cheer them on, who knows it might be enough to push them into the next round of the competition.”