WHILE third place might seem the most likely position for Guiseley to finish their Vanarama Conference North season, Mark Bower is setting his sights higher than that.

On the back of an excellent 3-1 home win over AFC Fylde on Tuesday, which prevented the visitors from retaking second place, the Lions boss is eyeing the top two placings.

Ahead of a congested 11 week run-in to the end of the season, during which time his team will have a minimum of 16 matches, he said: "Nothing is decided yet, and with the quality of players we have at Guiseley, we are quite capable of going on a long unbeaten run.

"We have done it in the past, and most of the lads are used to playing at the top end of this division."

Playing their first match since January 24, Guiseley saw off one of their promotion rivals, with Bower adding: "We restricted them to very little until the final ten minutes."

Guiseley not only welcomed back Danny Hall from his loan spell at Hyde, but also had former Stockport County striker Liam Dickinson making his debut up front with Adam Boyes.

Bower said: "Danny used all his experience to get himself through the game and gave a really good performance, while Adam was playing his first game for six weeks.

"His partnership with Liam gives us a real physical presence up front but they can also hold the ball up – they can play a bit."

All the re-arranged fixtures have taken teams even further away than the one match at home, one match away sequence.

For example, the visit of sixth-placed Hednesford Town on Saturday is the second of four straight Nethermoor contests for Guiseley before they embark on three away trips and another two at home.

Bower said: "Hednesford and Boston United (seventh, who visit Nethermoor a week on Saturday) are among the last matches where we can directly influence teams near the top of the table, while playing against teams in the lower half of the table gives us a good chance of picking up points."

Guiseley's match at Chorley last Saturday was called off due to a frozen pitch, with Bower adding: "There was one strip that was still frozen in the afternoon.

"It caught us on the hop on Saturday morning as I had just finished drawing up our set-pieces for the afternoon!"