Now, with an almost completely different team, the tables have turned quite literally. When the sides met in the FA Trophy, Guiseley levelled the score with a 3-1 win at the Northolme, Dayle Southwell netting the Trinity consolation in stoppage time. After Trinity ended their win drought with a massive three points at home to Worksop on Monday, who are also pushing for promotion, they will be more than confident they can cause damage to this Guiseley side.

Guiseley find themselves 8th in the league, level on points with Hyde and Marine and just two points away from Whitby, Macclesfield and Worksop who are occupying league positions 5th, 4th and 3rd. With the other end of the table being this tight, Guiseley will be aware of the danger of dropping points. The Lions will be hoping to improve their home form against ourselves and currently in the league, surprisingly, Trinity have picked up two more points at home in the league this season than our promotion pushing opponents.

Guiseley’s home form will be Trinity’s hope of causing another upset. In Guiseley’s last home performance they lost 3-2 to Marske United who are currently 5 points away from us, but with teams' records against Marske likely to be expunged, following Thursday's resignation from the NPL, it's fair to say, anything can happen! In fact, Guiseley’s last home victory was on the 21st November against Matlock Town. Despite this home form their away form cannot be argued against and if they can transfer their away form and start playing like that at home then this game will not be easy by any means.

Managed by former Ossett and Bury boss, Andy Welsh, The Lions have many goal threats that Trinity need to look out for. Three of these are forward Gabriel Johnson, midfielder Prince Ekpolo and raiding full back Reece Kendall. Gabriel Johnson is currently top scorer for Guiseley with 12 league goals to his name this season, the 27 year old, started his career at Brighouse before moving to Guisely in the 19/20 season. Prince Ekpolo is a talented midfielder, who spent about 5 years of his career in the Spanish leagues before making the move to England in 2017.

Many of you will remember Reece Kendall for his red card in the reverse fixture at the Northolme but he is a player in a rich vein of form right now with three goals in his last four. Overall he is at 5 league goals and Kendall will be out looking for revenge after his dismissal in the reverse fixture. The goal for the Holy Blues now is to get a run going, and we have an amazing chance of completing the double over our opponents on Saturday, beating them home and away. Up the Holy Blues!

In other news, Trinity's away game with Whitby, which has twice been postponed, has been given a new date. Russ Wilcox’s men will travel to the Towbar Express Stadium on Saturday 9th March 2024, kick off at 3pm.

Elsewhere

Bamber Bridge are the first side to lose a Marske home game, following the Seasiders resignation from the league, with Brig forced to take on a watching brief. Elsewhere in the division, there are some cracking ties, as Ashton host second placed Warrington Rylands and Marine and Hyde resume their play-off battle, whilst Worksop and Whitby lock horns at Sandy Lane as Craig Parry looks to bounce back to winning ways at home to a Whitby side sneaking under the radar! The list in full is below:

Ashton United vs Warrington Rylands
Atherton Collieries vs Matlock Town
Bamber Bridge vs Marske United (postponed)
Ilkeston Town vs FC United of Manchester
Macclesfield vs Lancaster City
Marine vs Hyde United
Morpeth Town vs Bradford (Park Avenue)
Radcliffe vs Workington AFC
Stafford Rangers vs Basford United
Worksop Town vs Whitby Town

Preview written by Rob Hughes and James Whitbread