RADCLIFFE are hoping for some healthy crowds in a hectic home run of three games in six days starting on Saturday.

Boro face three of the top sides in Evo-Stik North at the Neuven Stadium, and with two of them also being Greater Manchester derbies a good number of spectators are expected to pass through the turnstiles.

Second-placed Hyde United visit on Saturday with third-placed Scarborough Athletic arriving on Tuesday night and Trafford, who are sixth, next up on Thursday.

It is a tough spell for Jon Macken's men who followed up an impressive February of two wins and two draws and only one goal conceded by losing four out of five games in March.

Looking ahead to the next three games, the manager said he hoped bigger crowds could give the players a lift during the run-in.

“The players are always happy to get good home support and to have the fans get behind the team," he said.

"The fans will see we’re playing well and the performance levels will be high.”

Despite the 5-1 scoreline in their latest outing, away at Scarborough on Saturday, Macken was relatively happy with the overall performance.

“The result shows 5-1 but the performance didn’t really warrant that,” he said.

“I thought we played some good football and showed what we’re about.

"There were some very good performances in there.”

Macken was less pleased with the decision to award a penalty against Boro keeper Connor Keane after he pushed an opponent away as he went to throw the ball.

The 71st-minute decision came with Radcliffe 3-1 down as they were enjoying their best spell of the match having worked their way back into the game.

Macken, who was sent to the stands for protesting against the decision, said: “It was very, very harsh. The lad’s run into him.

"Referees get a hard time but sometimes if they explain themselves better it would be easier to take things like this.

“I was screaming, but then I’m passionate, it’s what you need in football. I wanted to know why he’d given it.”

Looking ahead to Saturday's game, he said: "We’ve got to go in believing. I believe we are a good team and we’ve got some very good players who can perform against the better teams in the division.

"We can absolutely bounce straight back.”

Macken admitted he was frustrated at conceding early goals once again – something which has plagued his side recently.

Boro have conceded in the first 10 minutes in four of their last five games, and were 3-1 down after 20 minutes against Scarborough.

“We’ll be working a lot on that, he said.

"It’s just mentality. Instead of getting drawn out of position we’ve got to be tight and organised.

“Instead of closing the man down, we need to start standing off and seeing whether we can double up on them later on.”