STEVE HALLIWELL knows Gresford Athletic face a make-or-break December.

Penrhyncoch visit Clappers Lane tomorrow, before Gresford meet Conwy Borough, Buckley Town and Holyhead Hotspur before the turn of the year.

Gresford are currently 11th in the table, a position that leaves them looking over their shoulder. Equally, Halliwell’s men are four points adrift of sixth placed Ruthin Town.

The Gresford boss, who saw his side beaten 1-0 by Porthmadog last weekend, said: “The league is so compact. Everyone is beating everyone.

“We don’t want to be getting sucked into the battle at the bottom of the table, so we know we’ve got four massive games coming up in December.

“The target is to take points from every game this month and we know we’ve got to stand up and be counted.”

Key to Gresford’s chances of ending a three-match losing run is their ability to score goals.

Sam Molyneux, Kieran Evans and Joe Newton started in a front three against Porthmadog with Freemans, Niall and Tom, Owen Roberts and Jake Eyre all available from the bench.

Jordan McCarter return to strengthen Halliwell’s options, the Gresford boss saying: “We just can’t find a partnership that clicks at the moment.

“We’ve lost eight league games and in all eight we haven’t scored. That shows where we are going wrong.”

John Haseldin is hoping that his new-look squad will soon be playing the ‘Holywell way’.

Haseldin was brought back as manager after a stuttering start to the new campaign under the now departed Gareth Sudlow, and has quickly made a number of important changes at Halkyn Road.

And while the players are still getting to grips with each other, and their new manager, Haseldin knows things will improve, hopefully starting at Porthmadog tomorrow.

“I will drill it into the lads that they are good enough to compete with any team in this league,” said Haseldin.

“We’ve got to stay up, we are in a scrap, and we can’t afford to let games pass us by.

“But we’ve got a group of lads who want to be here and I’m sure they will be playing the Holywell way soon by fighting for every ball.

“We are not far away from where I want us to be and we are looking forward to another tough game this weekend. Porthmadog are a good team who like to keep possession, but we go there with confidence because we are working hard.

“We will learn from our mistakes against Airbus, dust ourselves down and keep going.”

Holywell are boosted by the return of goalkeeper Michael Platt.