Non-league previews: Boss Craig Nicholls tells struggling Lye Town to 'believe'

The Flyers continue their battle to escape the drop zone, sitting 20th and four points adrift from safety, and are hoping to bounce back from a 5-1 hammering by Anstey Nomads last weekend. 

Nicholls' side will expect to have their work cut out tomorrow visiting second-placed Corby, and the Flyers boss has urged his side to not be afraid of their opposition.

"The lads just need to believe that they can go toe-to-toe with any team in the league," said Nicholls. "At times we have shown that, but then at other times we have gone a bit weaker and let things affect us. 

"The lads just need togetherness and when they group themselves, they are brilliant, it's just sometimes they let things affect them too much."

He added: "Corby are a good side, they are good at what they do. They are another big, strong and aggressive side. We are going to have to play in a way that can nullify their threats, and then have a threat ourselves.

"We have worked on a few things in training and hopefully we will be ready to go."

Sitting four points adrift from safety and edging towards the halfway stage of the season, the resignation of Walsall Wood from the league inflicted some pain on Lye. Subsequently, they lost the three points they had secured against Wood, and were plunged back towards the bottom of the standings. 

But Nicholls remains optimistic for his side, adding: "There's a long way to go. We saw when we went on a four-game unbeaten run that it can happen, we just need to make sure we have that again sooner rather than later and start to pick up points.

"Ultimately, you don't want it to go down to the last game of the season to try and stay up.

"The Walsall Wood game killed us. We got three points there and would have been out of the relegation zone. Although they are down and that is one place of the relegation zone taken, it still from a mindset point of view, when you see yourselves being dragged back into it, it is difficult to then motivate."

Elsewhere, fourth-placed Sporting Khalsa go to Hinckley LRFC looking to bounce back from two defeats in a row, and fifth-placed Darlaston Town host Coleshill Town.

In Northern One West, play-off chasing Chasetown travel to Widnes after victory over Atherton Collieries midweek, while Stafford Rangers visit Vauxhall Motors and Hednesford Town host Stalybridge Celtic after new boss Gavin Hurren tasted defeat for the first time since taking charge on Tuesday.