Taken from the programme for the visit of Charnock Richard on Saturday 16 February. Programmes available on the gate, £2.

After the blank in league fixtures over the last 3 weeks it will be good to get back at it again. Ten winnable games are in front of us, with complete focus support and commitment from all concerned. The superb win against Silsden in our last home match needs to be the mindset adopted by everyone. The committed and intense defending was a real pleasure to witness and this brought me as much pleasure and satisfaction as the quality of our go forward play and the quality of the goals from Steve Hall and debutant Tom Horner.

Centre Back Tom Horner is one of several new faces that have joined the squad since the turn of the year. Tom has joined us from NE Counties team EY Carnegie having moved to Manchester with work.

Divine Shanganya a powerful forward, has joined us after a stint in Scotland with Clyde FC, and also spent time on loan at Camelon FC who compete in the second tier of non-league north of the Border. Divine is another who has moved to Manchester with his studies and has massive potential.

Matt Marsh a product of the Bolton Wanderers academy is a defender/midfielder on the comeback trail after injury towards the end of his Bolton Wanderers stalled his progression into the professional ranks.

Ezekiel Miranda has also joined us on dual registration from Mossley making his debut against 1874 a couple of weeks and is a young full back with enormous potential.

Finally, another player on the comeback trail after a period out of the game is Joel Dixon a combative midfielder/defender with Blyth Spartans and Tadcaster amongst his previous clubs, and another who has moved across the Pennines and into the Manchester area with work and family ties over here.

They have all fitted into the squad superbly.

It was also great to get Tom Bailey back on the pitch after his injury lay off managing a solid 60 minutes in the friendly last Saturday, and I know he will be a key player for us in the run in.

We have got ourselves in a great position in the two months since we took over, recovering from a position 10 points from safety into a plus 2 points position ahead of Abbey Hey and Hanley as we go into today’s game. There is still much to do but with continued and vociferous and positive support from the side-lines we will prevail together.

– David Powell