GUISELEY are hoping to receive a much-needed player boost before Saturday's tough Vanarama Conference North fixture at Brackley.

After keeping four clean sheets in securing three wins and a draw, the Lions have slumped to successive heavy home defeats – 3-1 to Gainsborough Trinity and 4-1 to Gloucester City.

However, Guiseley manager Mark Bower is confident that the cavalry are riding over the hill, saying: "We hope to sign a striker before the weekend and will have Steve Drench, Danny Lowe (hamstring) and Gavin Rothery available.

"Steve was unavailable last weekend as his wife was giving birth to a boy, Gavin is back from suspension and Danny is in contention after his injury," said Bower. "We also hope to sign a striker before the weekend."

Not surprisingly, given his greater choice and the disappointment of their Nethermoor defeats, Bower has promised to freshen things up after conceding that "there are one or two that are not doing it, and that makes a massive difference to the team".

It was difficult for him to put his finger straight away on what had gone wrong in those two setbacks at LS20 8BT but after a few days' reflection, he said: "It is a combination of things, such as missing players and things not going our way."

However, he also confessed after the Gloucester defeat: "We are not where we were last season and maybe winning three games at the start of the season was the possibly the worst thing that could happen to us.

"Maybe our thoughts of ourselves are a little bit too high and we have certainly been brought back down to earth this week, and we have to sort it out.

"I have to think what can I do better, how can I get the best out of the players but we just seem a little short of confidence, which is difficult to understand as we have been winning games."

After the long trip to Brackley, the Lions are at home to Colwyn Bay on Tuesday, with Bower calling both "difficult games".