Todmorden Borough will be hoping they have their shooting boots on away to mid-table rivals CMB in Division Two of the West Lancashire League on Saturday.
Borough came unstuck by 3-1 at home to Croston Sports last weekend, when they were left to regret missed early chances.
“With the football we showed we should have put the game to bed in the first 30 minutes,” said manager John Gilford.
“We dominated and could have been three up, but our failure to take our chancescame back to haunt us.”
Dave Patrick had a couple of good openings and Ben Whittam and Chris Kay were also off target while Lee Earnshaw failed to convert a one-on-one opportunity.
Croston took the lead throughMatthew Golder eight minutes before the break.
They added two more through Matthew Masterson (55) and Stuart Welch (79) before Whittam scrambled one back with four minutes to go.
The visitors’ exploited Borough’s shortage of pace at the back, notably when they broke through in the second half and left back Daniel Lively was dismissed for a lunging tackle.
Gilford was contemplating what substitutions to make at that stage but the red card dashed home hopes of a fightback.
The boss is expecting CMB to provide a similar test to Croston so knows that his players will have to perform at their best.
Borough’s reserves were beaten 3-0 at home by a strong Bolton County second string on Monday evening.
The writing was on the wall when they conceded two goals in the first 20 minutes and County’s useful centre forward Alex Todd got all three goals.
The reserves host Hesketh Bank on Saturday.