Daisy Hill will be hoping to beat the weather tomorrow with a scheduled trip to face Droylsden in the North West Counties League First Division North scheduled for 3pm.

The fixture at the Butchers Arms will give Lee Hill’s men the opportunity to get back into action in their first competitive game of 2025, and a chance to build on their good recent form, which has seen them pick up 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four outings.

The planned early New Year schedule has been affected by the weather, with last Saturday’s fixture against Darwen called off, and wintry weather this week causing boss Hill to move to an alternative plan in preparation for this weekend’s away day.

“We trained last Saturday afternoon at Bolton Arena and worked on one of the outdoor pitches, so we got a good session in then,” said Hill.

“On Tuesday night, we had to just have a session at the gym.

“But it’s kept the lads ticking over nicely and we are ready for Saturday.”

While Daisy go into the game in good form, Droylsden are also on a formidable run themselves, and have banked eight successive league wins stretching back to early October.

Their home league form is especially impressive, with 10 wins and a draw from 13 games, scoring 31 goals and conceding only five.

And Hill is under no illusions of the task his side will face should the match beat the wintry weather.

He added: “Droylsden are going well and we know they are really strong at home.

“They have a good-sized following for our league, especially for home games, as well as having a good away support, too, so it might be that some teams aren’t used to that and it might affect them.

“With their home record, we have to be aware of that and we can’t go too gung-ho, but at the same time, we don’t want to alter our game too much and be ultra-defensive.

“When we played them at Daisy Hill in August they gave us a tough game, and we did well to earn a point.

“But while their squad is much the same as it was then, I feel we are a bit stronger now than we were when we played them.

“So I don’t know if you can take too much from that game now.

“It won’t be easy going there, but these are the sort of games to look forward to, and the lads are ready for it.”