Joint manager Nick Handley says Pontefract Collieries aren’t getting carried away by their lofty position
Nick Handley admits Pontefract Collieries have given themselves an excellent chance of promotion this season.
Third-placed Ponte, who host Shirebrook tomorrow, are level on points with Hemsworth Miners Welfare and three points behind Toolstation NCEL Division One leaders AFC Emley.
The situation is a huge contrast to last season when a poor start gave Pontefract a mammoth task in reviving their promotion aspirations which were gone by March.
In 2015, Ponte are in the mix and joint boss Handley said: “We’re not going to get carried away.
“We know we are going to be there-or-there-abouts at the end of the season.
“Three defeats out of four in November, December time dropped us right down to around ninth.
“We’ve gone back up to third and we could have gone joint top with Emley on Wednesday night, but we know there is a long way to go.
“That was the first game over the halfway mark and there’s a lot of points to be had and a lot of teams still in it.
“You look right down to Shirebrook and Knaresborough because they are not too far behind us at all.
“We’re up there and people recognise us as one of the better teams in this league and they know we are going to be challenging them.
“It was disappointing to lose against Louth and Mansfield, but we had injuries and people working and that had a big impact.
“But, it has been proven that when we have our full 16-man squad we have a tremendous squad.
“We started off slow last year, this year we started really well. We’re not chasing, we’re in the pack, but there will be a lot of twists and turns to come.”
Pontefract had to battle through horrendous weather conditions in the goal-less draw with Emley in midweek.
Collieries had to also play with ten men for 50 minutes after Phil Lindley was sent off.
Handley, who shares the job with Duncan Bray, said: “It was a case of getting through the game with a point after the sending-off.
“I felt at eleven men each we were the better team and it said a lot when their management team said we were the better team with ten men.
“It is two games running where the lads have had to put themselves through it with ten minutes.
“It was 80 minutes on Saturday and 45 minutes on Wednesday and they really showed discipline and showed that they can dig in when they need to.
“The pitch cut up and got sticky and that didn’t help. There was no wind in the first half, but it picked up and the conditions deteriorated in the second half.
“It impacted on the pitch so we were happy to take a point.”