WE’LL play again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll play again some chilly day. Our run of no games is really starting to get frustrating. If it’s bugging me, goodness knows how much it must be bugging Tommy Wright and his players, let alone David Johnston and John Tempest as they continue to work miracles off the pitch keeping the club afloat with little or no income coming in for several weeks now.

In truth, I wasn’t half as hopeful as some appear to have been that Sunday’s rearranged fixture with Salford City would go ahead. With the overnight forecast dipping below freezing and an early inspection a necessity given the kick off time, even Michael Fish wouldn’t have struggled to figure out that there was little chance of the game going ahead. Despite the best efforts of a group of volunteers to try and protect as much of the pitch as possible, the club’s use of the word “precautionary” as a prefix to pitch inspection seemed a touch optimistic.

After the big meeting with David Johnston the previous Monday, I don’t think anyone could have been in much doubt that we could have done with the game going ahead. With the club facing a weekly struggle with cash flow, the lack of home games being played due to cup elimination and postponements will be biting hard just like the frost. On the pitch, however, I suspect the postponement might have worked in our favour.

With our form being rock-bottom, I can’t help but feel that the added time to work together on the training ground might be more beneficial than facing the potential of a moral-sapping defeat to Salford. We’ve got some massive games coming up in the next month or so against both teams at the bottom of the league and teams up at the top. We need to be fit, ready and much more prepared than we have been to date this season. Hopefully, the extra time Tommy Wright has had to work with his charges won’t have been squandered.

With every week that passes, teams in and around us seem to be picking up results which just drags us further in the mire. Boston beating Southport on Saturday meant second bottom spot became just two points below us. With the exception of North Ferriby, who are well adrift at the bottom, all the other teams battling to avoid the trapdoor to the sticky glue league have bunched up and we’re right in there with them. That makes games against fellow relegation contenders massive.

The old cliché about six-pointers couldn’t be apt for our game on Saturday at Gainsborough Trinity. The Lincolnshire side currently occupy the final relegation place just one point behind us. Win and we have a little breathing space ahead of the festive fixtures against high-flying Harrogate Town. Lose and, if results go against us, we could be in the drop zone on Saturday evening.

Without wishing to place too much pressure on Tommy and the team, this game is starting to feel like a must-win. At some point we have to break this duck and get back to winning ways. Worryingly, Gainsborough appear to have picked up their home form in the league recently although they took a real pasting in front of their own fans in the FA Cup where step 3 side Slough Town won 6-0. The turkey and trimmings will taste a whole lot better on Christmas Day if we come back from Gainsborough with three points. Hopefully, Tommy and the boys have spent the last three weeks working out how to apply the stuffing.