By Kelham Hilton

DAISY Hill manager Brian Hart has refused to be drawn into any promotion talk, insisting his team will concentrate on one game at a time.

The Daisies will play their first of three successive away games when they travel to Barrow-in-Furness to take on Holker Old Boys this Saturday.

Ahead of the clash, Hart is hoping he can take a competitive side up north, to take on the 15th-placed Cobs.

“I’m hoping I can keep a team up there and be competitive,” said Hart, pictured below, whose side are firmly in the promotion shake-up in the North West Counties First Division.

“We’ve always had a mysterious illness whenever we’ve gone up there. ‘The Barrow virus’ as it’s commonly known.

“Hopefully the investment in the team and our ethos will mean we can take a good side up there and try and get something.

“It’s always tough against them and they tend to get results at home. We’ve just got to think of ourselves. I just want 16 committed players and hopefully we can come back with something.

“All I’m looking ahead to is the next game. We have a good group and we’ve worked really hard on getting players together.

“We’ve done bonding sessions and stuff like that just to get the group to stick together. As long as we do that and put the effort in, we’ll earn where we end up.

“That’s why we’re not looking too far ahead and thinking about promotion and other things. That’s for other people to worry about.

“We’ve been here before, where we’ve been in a good position and tailed off, so we don’t want to do that again. If we’re in the mix, we’re in the mix but let’s see where we end up.”

The Daisies slipped to fifth in the table after their 2-1 defeat to AFC Blackpool at the weekend.

Danny Warburton gave Daisy Hill the lead midway through the first half, but two goals in as many minutes at the half-hour mark swung the game the Mechanics’ way.

And with no further goals Blackpool’s victory saw them climb above Daisy Hill into fourth place.

Hart heaped praise on Warburton, who netted his fourth goal in three matches during the narrow defeat.

“He’s got a lot of talent, with energy to burn,” said the manager.

“We’ve been playing him in the middle of the park and he makes some fantastic runs to get into the danger area.

“Against Blackpool I wanted some energy up front to drag the defenders around and make things difficult, so I put Danny up front to try and stretch them.

“His work-rate is phenomenal, he can kick it with both feet and he’s got great technique.

“It’s all about harnessing him and keeping him controlled.”

Elsewhere, Atherton LR boss Mark Robinson was left ruing his side’s defending as they went down 3-1 to 10-man Pilkington in the North West Counties First Division North, writes Kelham Hilton.

LR fell behind in 16th minute through Luke Septhton’s opener but finished the half with a one-man advantage after Paul Meadows was sent off for his second bookable offence of the game.

The Panthers eventually made the extra man count with eight minutes to go when Adam Lawrence finally broke the home side’s stubborn resistance.

The visitors pressed for the winner but were hit with a sucker punch in the dying embers of the contest.

After some lacklustre defending, Danny Greene raced onto Sephton’s flick-on to put Pilkington back in front.

Moments later, Phil Marsh was on hand to finish off a devastating counter-attack to condemn the Panthers to a second successive defeat.

“Unfortunately, it was the same old story again,” said Robinson.

“I felt that we were the better team and played the better football, but we found ourselves a goal down again, from a great through ball and good finish.

“When they went down to 10 men, I thought we took control and kept the ball really well.

“We worked hard and got ourselves back into the game but then it swung in a couple of minutes where we were pushing for a winner.

“We hit the post and then a few minutes later we didn’t defend properly again and gave a really poor goal away.”

LR are 18th after back-to-back league defeats and are back in Merseyside on Saturday to face third-placed AFC Liverpool.