RADCLIFFE Borough boss Paul McGuire believes his battling side need to make themselves “comfortable” in Evo-Stik Division One North early in the new year as they aim for the safety of a mid-table finish.

Despite a 2-1 defeat at third-placed Salford City on Boxing Day, the Stainton Park outfit have been on an impressive run of form against the top sides in the league with a hard-fought 2-2 draw at second-placed Darlington and a 5-3 victory over fourth-placed Droylsden in recent weeks.

“The lads are on a really good run of form,” said McGuire.

“As long as we take it to other teams, get in their faces a bit and make life difficult then we are a match for anybody.

“There are two or three teams in this league that are worse than us so we need to distance ourselves from that bottom part of the table.

“We’ve just got to get ourselves into a nice comfortable position.”

After a goalless first half, Boro – who saw their match against Ossett Albion on Sunday postponed due to a frozen pitch – took the lead against promotion-hopefuls Salford on Friday with defender Richard Smith scoring his second goal in as many games. But City’s Sam Madeley netted a brace to secure the points for the high-flyers.

The loss saw Boro slip to 18th place in the league with 21 points from 23 games, but McGuire believes the Stainton Park outfit have proved in recent games they have what it takes to stave off any thoughts of relegation this season.

“This side is definitely good enough to keep us in this league,” he said.

“A month or so ago I had a few doubts, but over the past few weeks the team has proved to me that they are good enough with a fantastic win against Droylsden and a brilliant draw at Darlington.”

Although he knows his Boro side are not safe yet, McGuire believes his team are moving in the right direction and are more than capable of securing a mid-table berth.

“We’ve got a cushion of 10 points and hopefully we can continue that upward trend into the new year,” he said.

“We are a mid-table team and are looking to be in 14th or 15th position at the end of the season.

“We are not out of the woods yet but there are teams down at the bottom like Padiham and New Mills who are not really picking up points.

“We’ve got to be strong, win a lot of the games against the bottom seven or eight sides and get ourselves in a good position.

“Everyone’s got to stand up and be counted and hopefully we will pick up more points than those teams below us.

“We may also need to draft in a few faces as we start to look ahead to next season.”