DANNY HARRISON is happy to go back to doing the 'dirty work' at Connah's Quay Nomads - even if he enjoyed ending his five-year goal drought.

The 36-year-old midfielder is now better known for breaking up opposition attacks than making lung-bursting forays into the penalty area to get on the end of crosses.

But that's exactly what Harrison did, safe in the knowledge that recent signing Adam Barton was holding the fort, at Newtown as he got on the end of Rob Hughes' centre to level the scores at Latham Park.

Harrison's last goal came for Chester in Gateshead on Tuesday, September 24, 2013, the experienced campaigner finally netting for Nomads at the 145th time of asking.

"I've been getting a fair bit of stick all week," said Harrison. "I pushed on a little bit more than I normally do with Adam sitting back and it worked out quite well, didn't it?

"I dropped back when we went 2-1 up, but it was nice to score."

Harrison managed to get enough contact on the inswinging cross to beat Newtown's Dave Jones, who was left poleaxed on the Latham Park turf, before departing the action minutes later.

"I was more of a tackle in the end," joked Harrison, who is ready to return to his role of protector as Nomads entertain Caernarfon Town on Friday.

"I understand my role in the team and I'm happy with that. I'm willing to do whatever is asked of me by the manager.

"I'm usually one of those players who lets the attackers get on with scoring the goals."

Harrison's strike proved a turning point in the game as Michael Wilde powered home a header 14 minutes after his team-mate's leveller to hand Nomads a victory that sent them back to the top of the table.

"We are in a good place as a team and a club, and there is a nice vibe around the place," said Harrison. "It was a great start to the second part of the season for us and we working hard to get better.

"It will be an interesting run-in and we've given ourselves every chance of competing with TNS and Barry."

Asked the almost inevitable question of whether Nomads could be the team to end Saints' dominance of the division, Harrison played it with a straight bat.

"We need to concentrate on ourselves," he said. "It's a cliche, but we are taking things a game at a time, the first of those against Caernarfon, who have taken four points off us this season.

"We played before TNS, though, so if we can get another positive result we can put another little marker down.

"I think Craig (Harrison) said that this time last season TNS were 12 or 13 points clear at the top, so we will see how they deal with two teams competing against them.

"We are right in the mix and we don't want to just be happy with second or third place and winning the Welsh Cup."