Horncastle Town set to return to league action after long wait

The Wongers’ last league game was on November 19 when they beat Lincoln United Development 4-2, with two cup matches having taken place since then but no match at all since December 7.

That means boss Andrew Cotton is keen to see a degree of normality return to the fixture list in the second half of the season as Horncastle aim to climb the Lincolnshire League table from their current 14th spot.

And although their visitors currently sit bottom of the league with just one win to their name, Cotton is determined complacency won’t be an issue.

He said: “It’s obviously been frustrating not being able to play but it’s been the case with most clubs in the league in fairness, aside from a few games that have been able to take place on the 3G surfaces.

"We’ve also struggled to get much training in as the sand-based astroturf we use has also been frozen solid a lot, but we’ve asked the lads to do plenty of runs to stay fit and are due to play a game with the reserve side this week which should be useful ahead of the weekend.

"No games are easy at this level – anyone can give anyone a good game - and if we’re not sharp and don’t start properly we’ll end up in trouble. We know Lincs football and there are no poor teams at this level so we’ll have to apply ourselves and we expect Appleby to give us a tough test.”

After Saturday’s scheduled game, there is then a break of ten days before the next one, a trip to Barton Town Reserves on Tuesday, January 17.

But three games in a week will then follow to round off the month, with Nettleham the visitors on January 21, a home game with Cleethorpes Town Reserves four days later and then a County Cup tie at Tetney Rovers on January 28.

And Cotton hopes some momentum can eventually be gained as his players get fitter and the games come more regularly.

He said: “It’s been a fractured season and hard to get into a run but hopefully we can perform well on Saturday against Appleby and take it on from there . ”