Despite suffering back-to-back away defeats, club captain Andy Holdsworth firmly believes the Lions can put a strong run together and make the Skrill North play-offs.

Losses at Barrow and Telford have halted the club’s charge towards the top of the table somewhat but Holdsworth remains confident his team-mates can put together an unbeaten league sequence similar to the one that came to an end at Holker Street.

“We have got games in hand. We might be able to finish top,” he told Micky Ruddle.

“Everybody has got to play each other again, we’ve got to play some teams that are up there and with the games in hand, if we get points of them, it puts us in to the play-offs.”

Goals from Adam Boyes and Gavin Rothery were unable to deny Telford on Saturday as the Lions ended the game with ten men on Saturday thanks to Danny Ellis’ dismissal.

Although the Lions conceded four, Holdsworth was encouraged by the Guiseley display on what was a difficult surface.

“It was a tight game on a horrible pitch, one of the worst pitches you’ll ever see. The referee didn’t give a lot to us and we were unlucky at times.

“We scored two goals and defended quite well until Danny got sent off. I even thought we defended quite well with ten men as well but, hey, we keep going.

“Before we came, we thought we thought we had a very good chance to come and get three points, but if you look at the pitch it’s horrific. At the end of the day, they took the three points and we have to move on to Saturday now.”

Defender Rhys Meynell added: “We were poor for the first 25 minutes but we showed character to go from one down to get 2-1 in front in the second-half.

“We have to pick ourselves up and go again next week.”

Mark Bower’s men will now turn their attentions to the West Riding County Cup when they travel to Eccleshill United on Wednesday night, as they look to get back to winning ways and reach the final of the competition.