HORWICH St Marys Victoria’s Premier Division season was encapsulated in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Old Mancunians.

Vics have, during the course of the campaign, been a match for their divisional rivals but found themselves coming up short due to a lack of a cutting edge in front of goal.

It has been a particularly lean time for Danny Holmes’ side at home, as they have just two wins from nine games at Scholes Bank.

Their total of 39 strikes in 17 matches may be a relatively healthy return but Holmes pointed to a shortage of goals that has plagued their season.

“Saturday was a bit of a poor result,” he said. “We controlled much of the first half but went in a goal behind.

“Our goalkeeper, Joel Trickett, gave away a penalty and it was from a challenge he didn’t really need to make after the danger had been cleared.

“It was disappointing to go in a goal down but it hadn’t been a great half of football, there were very few chances.

“We switched to a 4-4-2 in the second half to get two men out wide and we got at them a bit more.

“We were far better but without managing to put it in, Matty Hancock had a one-on-one chance that he didn’t finish and there was a goalmouth scramble where we couldn’t get the final touch, their goalkeeper did really well with both of those.

“Then as we were pushing late on they broke away and scored a second goal to finish the game.”

The defeat leaves Horwich 11th in the 14-team Premier Division but with Bury GSOB and Howe Bridge Mills looking strong favourites for the drop, Holmes is aiming higher over their last nine outings.

And he insists a turn of the tide could see them quickly climb into the higher reaches of the table.

“I’m happy with how we look defensively,” he said. “We’re quite young at the back but we seem to be okay there, and we’ve got two good goalkeepers to call on.

“It’s just going forward we could do with a bit more creativity.

“We’re pretty happy with the squad as a whole, we’re just a bit low on confidence at the minute. The front lads are struggling a bit and that builds the pressure. All we need is a break and we’ll be okay. Two wins in a row and we could move into the top half of the table.

“Our last three, against Old Mancunians, Failsworth and Little Lever, were all winnable games but we took one point from them, which was disappointing.

“We don’t have a game this weekend so we play against Rossendale at home next time out.

“We lost at their place when we had had all the chances, didn’t take them and they put away the two chances they had.

“It’s been the story of our season and that’s why we’ve been in and around the mid-table positions all year.

“We’ll keep going and hope that we can turn it around.”

n In the Manchester Football League, Premier Division side Bolton County’s match at home to Avro and the Division Two fixture between Breightmet United and Govan were postponed.