THE promotion “six-pointers” are coming thick and fast for Warrington Town, but it is nothing their squad has not seen before.

With a few notable exceptions, the group is largely the same as the one that reached last season’s Northern Premier League Premier Division play-off final, only to suffer the heartbreak of falling at the final hurdle.

At the very least, though, it is a squad that knows how to navigate their way through a tough run-in to secure a play-off spot and manager Mark Beesley is hoping that experience stands them in good stead.

Their next test is arguably as tough as it gets at the moment – a trip to an in-form Radcliffe side that was one of the beneficiaries of Town’s postponed trip to Morpeth at the weekend.

Yellows were forced to watch on as teams in and around them closed the gap and in the case of Radcliffe, leapfrogged them to place yet more significance on there being no slip-ups.

“There’s some really good clubs vying for spots around the top of the table,” Beesley said.

“I’m sure everyone will probably agree that South Shields are done and dusted for the title but from second down to eighth, there’s places to fight for.

“For a neutral, it’s something to be excited about but we’re not neutral.

“We’re concentrating on what we’ve got to do – we’ve got a tough game on Saturday against an excellent team and we’ve got to be ready for it.

“They’ve recruited really well and are up there on merit so at the minute, it’s probably as tough as it gets going there.

“We’ve got good experience but we’ve got good young players who have been with us for a while, and that’s the key to it.

“It’s been important that the nucleus of the squad has stayed together and now, we can push on.

“We put the work in on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and hopefully, the experiences of last year will stand us in good stead.”

For the second time this season, heavy snow in Northumberland put paid to Town’s trip to Morpeth which means their longest away trip of the campaign will now have to be played on a midweek date.

It also means midfielder Sean Williams’ three-match suspension is pushed back a week after Yellows’ appeal against his first-minute sending-off against Bamber Bridge earlier this month was dismissed.

Given the forecast earlier in the week, however, they had plans in place to keep the players active in the event of a postponement.

“We sort of envisaged that may end up happening, so we had a training venue set up,” Beesley said.

“We trained well on Saturday and we’ll prepare well for another tough game at the weekend.

“It’s not ideal having to go up there on a Tuesday night now but there’s nothing we can do. It’s part of football and I’m sure the lads will be ready for it.”

The weekend’s game will be the first since a new two-year contract for Beesley and his assistant Dave Raven was announced last week.

Should he remain until the end of said deal, he will have been at Cantilever Park for nearly nine years having joined as assistant manager to Paul Carden in 2016 before stepping up to the top job in 2021 when Carden left to join AFC Telford United.

While grateful for the overwhelming positive reaction to the news, Beesley says he would prefer the focus to be on those he sends onto the pitch.

“Toby (Macormac, club chairman) mentioned it around Christmas time and I was happy with how we were moving the club forward,” he said.

“It was a brief conversation and it was done – we just want to keep moving things forward as best we can.

“It’s around the time of year where we need to be looking forward and trying to secure the players’ futures, so we had to all be pushing in the same direction.

“I’m not a massive social media watcher – I just tend to concentrate on what I can do and that kind of stuff will take care of itself.

“I’ve had plenty of nice messages from players and supporters which is pleasing, but it’s not about me.

“I’d rather go under the radar and let the focus be on the players – they are the most important people.”