Guiseley joint boss Marcus Bignot sets his sights on Darlington and the play-offs

Guiseley are set to take on Darlington for a second time in 10 days tomorrow as they look to move back into the play-off places.
Guiseley joint manager Marcus Bignot.Guiseley joint manager Marcus Bignot.
Guiseley joint manager Marcus Bignot.

The West Yorkshire outfit are in stuttering form having picked up just one win from their last five league games. Nevertheless, the team, led by Marcus Bignot and Russ O’Neill, took plenty of encouragement from their latest outing which saw them draw 0-0 away at fourth-placed Brackley Town.

Joint boss Bignot said: “There was a tad of disappointment after the game with certain aspects of the performance. We didn’t impose ourselves on the ball as much as we would have liked. We didn’t play well in that aspect but, on the other hand, when you’re not as good on the ball you have to make sure you don’t get beaten and that was the case.

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“Since we’ve changed the system over these last nine games we kept four clean sheets.

“If you’d have said beforehand that we’d get a goalless draw with Brackley after going down to 10 men, we would have taken it.”

The draw extended Guiseley’s unbeaten run away from home to seven consecutive games and it keeps the team within a couple of points of the play-off places.

Bignot believes that top seven is still a realistic goal but it will require a huge upturn in form.

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He added: “We’re enjoying being in and around it [the play-offs].

“We’re at the business end of the season now and it’s going to take promotion form to get to it.

“It would be an almighty achievement if we do go into the play-offs. The realism is we should be nowhere near it but the fact is we are. We’ll certainly embrace it for the supporters and we’ll give everything we can because they’re the most important people.”

After two winless games, Guiseley will be keen to get all three points this Saturday when they face Darlington. Both teams met just 10 days ago with the North East side picking up a 2-1 victory at Nethermoor Park.

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When asked whether lessons were learnt from that encounter, Bignot said: “It was two in-form teams at the time and we were just on the wrong side of the result. We were happy with the performance. We know where we need to tweak and impose ourselves. Hopefully, we can be on the right end of the result this time around.”

Meanwhile, Farsley Celtic will be aiming to do what their West Yorkshire rivals couldn’t and beat Brackley Town.

The Celts are currently on a six-match winless run and are continuing to slip away from the play-off places.

Both teams last met in December with the Northamptonshire outfit rescuing a point courtesy of a 90th-minute equaliser.

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Brackley come into tomorrow’s encounter having won six of their last 10 games in National League North. What’s more, with the team is currently well in the thick of the promotion fight and will be keen to take all three points, especially on home turf.

Farsley, on the other hand, were knocked out of the FA Trophy by Barnet last Tuesday night. Despite being one of the outright favourites for relegation, the West Yorkshire outfit have spent the majority of the season in the top half of the table. Because of recent results, Farsley have slipped down the ranks into 12th but are still just four points short of the play-off places.

Elsewhere, following a 2-0 defeat to Altrincham last weekend, Bradford Park Avenue will resume their search for a fourth league victory when they take on Southport away from home.