Daisy Hill face one of their toughest away trips of the season tomorrow when they travel to East Lancashire to face Nelson in the North West Counties League First Division North.
Nelson’s win at near neighbours Colne on Tuesday night moved them to within one point of league leaders Droylsden and having three games in hand, and with four wins in their last five games, they are one of the division’s in-form teams.
However, Daisy have picked up three wins in their last four games, the latest a good 2-0 victory at home Steeton last Sunday.
And manager Nicky Hunt is confident his side have the ability to cause problems for this weekend’s opponents.
“Nelson are winning games constantly now, after a little blip, where they didn’t win for three or four games,” said Hunt.
“I know their gaffer (Aaron Ripley) quite well and he will have them well prepared.
“They’ve got a lot of good players, and a lot of quality over the pitch. They’ve got the best centre-half in the league, Billy Priestley, but he’ll have a tough test against Liam Sheppard on Saturday.
“I’m sure he won’t be looking forward to coming up against Shep, and I’m sure Shep will be relishing testing himself against the best in the league.”
While Nelson are not the league’s top scorers, they have the best defensive record in the division, and Hunt is aware taking chances on Saturday will be crucial if his side are to take anything from the game.
“We’re not going to approach the game cautiously, but we know we have to be on our A-game.
“I’m a realist, and I’m not going to say we can beat every team in the league, you’ve got to understand how tough the opposition is, whoever you’re playing.
“Going away to Nelson is a really tough game, but you start with a point and we have to be defensively sound, which we were last Sunday.
“We might not create a lot of chances on Saturday, but when we do we need to be sure we put them in the back of the net.
“Getting to the final third has never been a problem for us this season, it’s just finishing the chances that we create that has been the problem.
“I’m not worried about my team talk either, because if you can’t get up for a game against Nelson away, for me the best team in the league, then you’re struggling and shouldn’t really be playing football. You should want to go and put on a good performance, because you never know where it can go.
“We’ve got Nelson on Saturday, Garstang in midweek and then Squires Gate on the following Saturday. It’s a big week for us to find out if we’ve got enough for that play-off push, and if we haven’t got enough, then we just have to aim to finish as high as we can this season.”
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