RADCLIFFE Borough boss Danny Johnson admits his side now need a "bit of luck" if they are to avoid relegation from Evo-Stik Division One North.

Despite a good performance at home to Mossley on Saturday, a depleted Stainton Park outfit were defeated 2-0 by the promotion chasers after failing to convert their chances.

And with a rejuvenated New Mills side winning two out of their last three games, 19th-placed Boro now find themselves looking nervously over their shoulder with just six points dividing them from the drop zone.

"It's getting tight now and it's probably out of our hands a little bit because we are relying on other teams to drop points," Johnson told the Radcliffe Times.

"New Mills have done well to pull it back but they've still got to win their games and I still believe we can win at least one, maybe two, more games. And if we do that we'll give ourselves a really good chance.

"What we need now is a little bit of luck to stave off relegation."

In-form strikers Steve Foster and Sam McMahon both missed Saturday's match through injury. Richard Smith was suspended and fellow defender Danny Lambert withdrew from the squad with illness shortly before kick off. It meant Johnson was forced to give debuts to three new signings - .....

"We can't make any excuses really," he said.

"But from the side that beat Burscough we had four key players out so it was always going to be difficult.

"The lads who came in competed well against a strong Mossley team. They only trained with us on Thursday night but they gave us energy and a bit of know-how.

"We felt we could nick a draw and apart from two really poor goals from our point of view we were worthy of that."

With Boro being unable to match the financial highs of some of the top clubs in the league, the Stainton Park boss believes not taking enough points from the side's lower down the table has been Boro's biggest problem this season.

"When we look back at the last seven games since I've been here we've played Warrington, Mossley twice, Spennymoor, Northwich and Scarborough, with Burscough being the only team around us," said Johnson.

"They've all got aspirations of being in the division above, while we've got aspirations of surviving in this league.

"We can't expect to take points off the bigger teams because we can't compete with them financially or attract the players they can.

"But if we had taken more points from those clubs at the lower end of the table we would have been safe by now."

There was however some good news for the Stainton Park side this week with full-back Danny Lafferty committing his future to the club.

"Atherton Collieries did put in a seven day request for Danny but he has confirmed to me that he will be staying with us," said Johnson.

"That just goes to show where Danny believes the club is going because Colls offered him a lot more money but he has decided to stay and that's a great bonus for us."

Boro have a weekend off this week before two games in three days over the Easter period.

The Stainton Park side travel to Ossett Town next Saturday before a much-anticipated home match against league leaders Salford City on Easter Monday.