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Saturday's Blue Square North Preview

Fleetwood Town and Southport have the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Blue Square North and pull away from the chasing pack.

Both the Fleet and the Sandgrounders have a significant advantage over the rest of the sides in the division with Hinckley Utd and Eastwood Town, in third and fourth, ten points behind Southport with Droylsden a further two points adrift.

Fleetwood take on Corby Town, who have struggled to maintain their impressive early-season form. The Steelmen, who are in eighth, come into this match on the back of a 2-1 loss to Solihull Moors, while the Fleet reminded the league of their credentials with a 3-1 win over Hinckley.

Southport take a on a Blyth Spartans side with renewed confidence after two successive victories over Stalybridge Celtic. Prior to that though, Blyth had lost two successive matches, while the Sandgrounders ensured their ten-point gap by maintaining a level of consistency that has seen them lose just three times in the league this season.

Hinckley will be confident of three points in their match against Northwich with the Vics smashed 5-2 at home by Droylsden on Wednesday, despite coming unstuck against league leaders Fleetwood 3-1 in their last match.

Fifth-placed Droylsden take on ninth-placed AFC Telford. The Bloods are another side whose inconsistency has hampered their season, although their lofty position belies this fact. They will be happy to have responded to their 1-0 loss over Ilkeston with a mid-week victory over Northwich. The Bucks still harbour hopes of a play-off place and come into this match buoyed by a 5-1 win over bottom-club Vauxhall Motors. However, they have struggled against the higher-placed sides this season.

At the bottom of the table, 20th-placed Gainsborough welcome Ilkeston Town to The Northolme. Trinity continue to find results and goals hard to come by as reflected by a negative goal difference of -18. The Reds are safely tucked in 10th place with neither the play-offs or relegation a threat and their results reflect as much as they continue to lose as many as they win.

Harrogate Town's last victory was three games ago at home against Hinckley, so they are not without resolve. Their opponents this weekend are sixth-placed Alfreton Town, although with the match being away from home, they will at best be looking to come away with a point.

Vauxhall Motors are staring relegation in the face. Despite only being a point behind Harrogate and three behind Gainsborough, losing 5-0 at home to Redditch before losing 5-1 away to AFC Telford does not inspire confidence. On their day they can scrap it with the rest as displayed in their two successive 1-1 draws but this is a match promotion-chasing Eastwood Town will expect to win.

All the matches in full:

Alfreton Town v Harrogate Town

Corby v Fleetwood Town

Droylsden v AFC Telford

Eastwood Town v Vauxhall Motors

Farsley Celtic v Gloucester

Gainsborough v Ilkeston Town

Hinckley Utd v Northwich

Redditch v Hyde

Southport v Blyth Spartans

Stalybridge v Stafford Rangers

Workington v Solihull Moors