RADCLIFFE Borough assistant manager Dave Powell believes his side are close to finding the winning formula ahead of Saturday’s game at home to Trafford.

Boro succumbed to two narrow 1-0 defeats in four days, at Brighouse Town in Evo-Stik First Division North last Saturday and at home to Colwyn Bay in the Doodson League Cup on Tuesday.

They remain five points above the drop ahead of the visit of 13th-placed Trafford, but Powell believes a more clinical approach could see his side power up the table.

“The commitment is great – I can never fault the lads for that – we just need to be a little bit more focussed in front of goal,” he said.

“We’ll keep working hard, keep delivering, and if we can keep doing the right things we’ll soon pick up a couple of wins.

“We would perhaps have expected Trafford to be a little bit higher than mid-table, but they’re going through a rebuilding and strengthening process.

“We lost 2-0 up there earlier this season, but it was a really tight game, a one-goal game, really.”

This week’s defeats have been a case of so near, yet so far, with Boro doing everything apart from putting the ball in the net.

Boro more than matched Premier Division Colwyn Bay, but succumbed to a first-half strike after the referee overruled his assistant, who flagged for offside as the ball went in.

“They started the game strongly, and were controlling the game, but we still restricted them to long-range shots," Powell added.

“It was a total fiasco of a goal, with the ball ricocheting off a striker – the linesman probably got it right and the ref got it wrong, but he’s overruled him.

“The second half was like the Alamo – we lifted the intensity, lifted the tempo and we threw everything at them.”

“They’re an improving side, they’ve got a new manager who came in about six weeks ago and they’ve got some very decent players.

“They put out quite a lot of good players – some teams tend to rest their players for the League Cup, but they put out quite a strong line-up.”

Saturday’s league defeat to Brighouse Town was a similar tale of woe in front of goal, as Boro succumbed to a 77th-minute winner.

With the side buoyed by the return of top scorer Steve Foster and key defender Danny Lafferty from injury, Powell hopes these hard-luck stories will become a thing of the past.

Boro face fellow strugglers New Mills, Ossett Town and Scarborough Athletic this month, and they will aim to improve the third worst goal-scoring tally in the division.

“At Brighouse, we had a couple of really close calls, a chance that agonisingly rolled across the line, and that’s how close it is between winning and losing the game.

“This is the start of a run of congested games and we will do our very best to work at our finishing.

“It’s a run of games against teams we need to be picking up points against.”