Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Garforth Town manager Paul Marshall has second place in his sights.
The Miners are six points behind second-placed Eccleshill United and Marshall hopes his men can capture the runners-up spot which could propel them back into the NPL for the first time in nine years.
“There’ll be loads of twists and turns because anybody can beat anybody,” Marshall told Non League Yorkshire.
“You look at Penistone, they’ll beat plenty of teams and so will Barton.
“We all have to play each other and I’m frightened about every team in the league and I’m sure most teams are.
“There’s no stand-out team.
“I told (my players) on Friday night that we’re six points behind Eccleshill and they are the target.
“I think Grimsby will probably win it but I still think second place is an option.
“I would say at this stage Eccleshill are the only team who can catch Grimsby but if they falter us, Sherwood, Penistone, Staveley and Barton are all ready to chase them.
“So we’re in a position to chase down second place; we never thought we’d be in this position at the start of the season with limited resources compared to other teams.
“We’re batting miles above our average, we should be finishing mid-table (with our resources).”
Marshall, whose side head to his old club Goole AFC tomorrow, says he could do with a new centre-half due to injuries.
His main man, the Swedish-American defender Kevin Terhaerdt is ruled out for at least a couple of weeks due to injury.
Marshall struggled for numbers over Christmas but he thought he had got over the worse until the last ten days.
“Well I got everyone back for the Knaresborough game,” he said.
“Kevin came back from America (after going home for Christmas) but then he got a trial in America so he back on the Monday for a trial with an MLS club.
“But he got his eye cut open and had to have stitches and he pulled his hamstring so now can’t play for two weeks and he’s obviously our best defender.
“That’s a big blow to us.
“His friend Michael Tufenkian came on for Dents (Sam Denton) last Friday (against Hemsworth) and is out for three weeks after a bad challenge in that game so defensively we’re a bit short.
“We have had no left-sided players.
“Jack McGahen has been out since the Penistone game (in November) because he got done there with a bad tackle.
“Karl Fitzgerald has had a hamstring problem since the (abandoned) Maltby game and Fergus McAughrie has been away for personal reasons.
“Karl has come back and I’ve signed Daniel (Omosebi) so we’re a little bit better and Jack McGagen, on a positive note, has started to run.”
No reason why we can’t challenge, add on the 6 points we could have had when we were ahead in the 2 abandoned games