JON Macken has told high-flying Radcliffe not to rest on their laurels after hitting top spot in the league.

A pre-Christmas 3-1 victory against Widnes put Boro top of the pile for the first time since September and strengthened their billing as promotion favourites.

But Macken won’t allow over-confidence to creep into his buoyant camp and vowed to keep demanding more from his players.

“I keep saying to the lads ‘we’re going to keep driving you’ because they can improve, they can get better,” he said. “You can always work on things and get higher in your levels of performance.

“That’s what we’re trying to do – get their levels as high as we possibly can.”

Macken has, however, allowed himself a few moments to look at the league table and reflect on a good season’s work to date.

After chalking up seven straight wins leading up to Boxing Day, including a 7-0 hammering of Clitheroe, the Boro boss is happy with how his squad is shaping up.

“It’s pleasing, not just the results, but the level of performance has been really high,” he said.

“We know teams are going to come up against us and try to stop us playing, try to make it hard for us, and we know there are good teams in this division.

“But I believe we have got a group of lads who can overcome those obstacles. We have got a great group. They are very talented lads and we’ve got to keep pushing each other.”

Boro have also been able to mix their game up this season – adapting to both the physical nature of the league and the deteriorating winter conditions, but being able to stick to Macken’s footballing principles.

“We will still try to play football, it’s the way I want to do it,” the manager said.

“It’s how we train, it’s how we set out to win games.

“We’ll continue to do that, keep on that path. At the end of the day you’ll have to adapt to certain situations in certain games but we have got a squad together now that when people come into the team we know they can do the job.”