MANAGER Dave McNabb is confident the best is yet to come for his Rylands side.

With their season just shy of its halfway stage, Blues sit fifth in the North West Counties League Premier Division.

They are six points shy of the promotion spots but with teams around them having games in hand on each other, there is scope for things to change dramatically.

Barnoldswick Town are the visitors to Gorsey Lane for Blues’ first match of 2020 on Saturday, kick off 3pm, as they look to bounce back from a Christmas period that was dominated by late drama.

An injury-time equaliser forced them to settle for a 1-1 Boxing Day draw with Runcorn Town while 48 hours later, a depleted Rylands outfit were beaten 2-1 at leaders 1874 Northwich by way of a goal in the 89th minute.

“I feel like there’s certain games where we’ve given points away,” McNabb said.

“We dropped two points on Boxing Day and dropped the point I thought we’ve deserved at Northwich.

“Overall, it’s been a good solid first half of the season for us, but I still thing there’s more to come.

“That’s obviously a big positive but every game in this league is a tough one.”

Following Saturday’s game, Blues make the short trip to promotion rivals Irlam on Tuesday, kick off 7.45pm.

McNabb is keen to get his side believing that these are the kind of games they can thrive in.

“We’ve always known we can compete with the best in the league but I think getting the players to believe that is the hardest job we’ve got,” he said.

“Confidence can be fragile at times in any sport, but one thing we do have in our side is youth.

“We do have a lot of young players with not a lot of experience and when things are going wrong, its having that ability to bounce back.

“We can have a good rest and we’ll get back in training on Thursday ready for Saturday.”