Gainsborough Trinity welcome bottom of the table Blyth Spartans to the KAL Group Stadium as they focus on the remainder of their league campaign.
The Holy Blues recently ended a run of three games without victory in midweek as they beat play-off challengers Warrington Rylands, 3-1.
That win meant that Gainsborough themselves will still have one eye on the play-offs, given that their strong cup form this season leaves them with three games in hand on some teams while being 13 points behind the play-offs.
The opposition:
New Blyth manager Michael Connor has failed to turn around the fortunes at the North-east outfit, winning just once in 16 attempts since his November appointment. That was a run that was preceded by a further four losses, with the club now onto their third manager of the campaign.
Their most recent victory came in a 2-1 win at home to Mickleover Sports, in which two second-half goals allowed them to turn the game on its head against the side just one place above them.
Since that point the Spartans have picked up just one point from a possible nine.
Team News:
Holy Blues manager Russ Wilcox told The Linc sports reporter Thomas Westcott that his side’s performances had gone “a little flat” since being eliminated from the FA Trophy.
He said: “The players were excited and then went a little bit flat and certainly the Prescot Cables performance showed that.”
Having fixed those issues for the performance in midweek Wilcox is hoping to have a fully fit squad as his side looks to push towards the play-offs on Saturday.
The Holy Blues manager said: “We know how difficult that game is going to be, you’d look at the table and think its three points, but this league doesn’t work that way.”
Head-to-head:
While the two sides are yet to face off against each other this season, due to the postponement of the reverse fixture in January, the most recent meeting came in the National League North during the 2017/18 season.
Blyth took two wins from the two clashes that season. They scored four goals on both occasions.
In the first meeting, Blyth took an early 2-0 lead before Michael Jacklin pulled one back on the half hour mark. The game was then put to bed by two second-half Blyth goals sandwiched either side of a second Holy Blues goal courtesy of Bradley Wells.