Daisy Hill will be hoping the weather will finally relent and they will be back in action on Saturday when Longridge Town visit the Ginge Power Stadium in a second-round tie in the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy.
The Cutters have not seen any action since a Boxing Day defeat at Bacup Borough, and in the meantime manager Nicky Hunt has been busy ensuring the down time has not been wasted.
“When we get a game called off, you can’t do anything about it, it’s the weather, so you have just got to get on with it,” said Hunt.
“You just move on to the next game, whichever game that is. and hopefully for us it’s on Saturday.
“The lads have been doing some fitness work and stuff to keep them ticking over but the majority of them are fighting fit anyway, they’re at the gym two or three times a week, so that’s not been a problem.
“I’ve been trying to get to as many games as possible, and I think that’s what all managers are doing. If their game’s not on, they’re trying to get out and watch other games, obviously to see what’s going on and see what players are playing and not playing.
“It’s just match fitness that will be the problem for everyone, there’s only been a few games really over the past three weeks in our league, so everyone will be the same.
“Hopefully, we can hit the ground running Saturday, but I am prepared for some players maybe struggling a bit because we’ve not had a game for three weeks.”
Saturday’s opponents Longridge Town sit in 11th place in the North West Counties League Premier Division, and before the weather took hold, they had been on a run of form that had seen them lose only once in seven games.
But with Saturday’s game starting a busy run for Daisy, with three games in seven days, and a total of nine games scheduled in the space of just under four weeks, Hunt says he will have an eye on the upcoming fixtures when selecting a squad for Saturday.
“As a manager, I’d be stupid not to be looking at the games ahead, especially in the league, because that’s where we want to climb the table and hopefully be fine for the play-offs at the end of the season,” said the Daisy boss.
“But it’s something that we’ll actually be looking forward to. That’s all we want to do, play games rather than just train all the time. So it will be a good boost for the whole squad that there’ll be a few games on over the next few weeks.
“The squad are fully fit now, and we’ve got quite a few lads to choose from. but it might be a good chance for a few young ones to step up in the squad on Saturday and maybe see what they can do as well.
“But we don’t take any cup competition lightly, so the team I’ll pick for Saturday will be a team that I feel that can go out and do a job against a team that are doing well in the league above, and we’ll give Longridge all the respect that they deserve.
“We’ve already played a couple of teams in the league above in different cups this season and we fared really well against them, so I’m hoping Saturday will be the same.
“Longridge like to pass the ball about, and they’re nice on the eye, but obviously like every team they’ve got strengths, but they’ve also got weaknesses.
“We’ve just got to try and play on the weaknesses on Saturday, and hopefully if we do that, and if we follow the game plan, then we’ve got every chance.”
Kick off at the Ginge Power Stadium on Saturday is 3pm, and if the teams are level after 90 minutes, a penalty shootout will decide the tie.
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