Peterborough Sports boss is becoming a believer after another fantastic night at the Bee Arena

Mark Jones scores for Sports against Banbury. Photo: James Richardson.

But the manager will still spend plenty of time keeping feet on the ground, while trying to combine his players’ obvious passion with more regular common sense decisions.

A red card for full-back Isaiah Bazeley almost derailed Sports in their Tuesday night bid to beat keen rivals Banbury United at the Bee Arena, but goals from Mark Jones (2) and Jordan Nicholson sealed a superb 3-2 win against the team who had started the day second in the table.

Champions Banbury also finished 23 points ahead of second-placed Sports in the Southern Premier Division Central last season so Dean and his players treated the fixtrure as a huge game.

"We didn’t feel we got a fair crack at the title last season,” Dean said. “That wasn’t Banbury’s fault as they had an amazing season, but we lost to them twice with two understrength teams so we were well up for the game.

"It was pleasing to beat them especially as they had started this season so well, but we will be keeping our feet on the ground as there is a long way to go.

"We’re much better at home and we’ve played five of the eight league games at our place so far.

"The next two league games away to Darlington and Alfreton will tell us more about our chances, although I am starting to believe we can do well.

"We played well for most of the game and deserved to win to continue a brilliant start, but we do make things hard for ourselves.

"We were in control and suffered a needless red card and we missed chances to put the game to bed at 3-1.

"They had a chance to equalise as well. It should never have been that close as we were the better team and had chances to kill the game off.

"Isaiah’s second yellow was harsh, but he should not have given the referee the chance to even the numbers up. He likes the physical part of football, but he needs to be more sensible.

"But eight games ago I had no clue how we were going to do at this level and now eight games in I’m being critical of a win against a team who were second in the table and who won our division very easily last season."