Kyle Perry fit to make his Pitmen debut

The 29-year-old striker, signed from Altrincham in the summer, hopes to overcome an Achilles injury that ruled him out of the first two National League North fixtures of the season.

The Pitmen failed to build on their opening-day triumph over Stalybridge Celtic by slipping to a 2-1 defeat against much-fancied AFC Fylde on Tuesday night.

But assistant manager Larry Chambers believes there is plenty to be positive about, saying: "We were pleased with Saturday's win, but Tuesday was always going to be difficult.

"Fylde are expected to be up there. They have a chairman throwing money into the club and they had players on the bench on £600 and £700 a week.

"That's treble and sometimes four times as much as some of ours. It's the toughest this league has been for a long time.

"Rob (Smith, manager) and I are disappointed with the goals we conceded, but the second-half performance was much better and if we had scored one, it would have been very interesting."

Although Perry is set to return from injury in time to face Harrogate, Adam Thomas (collarbone) and John Disney (hamstring) are still a few weeks away from seeing action for the first time this season.

And Chambers is expecting a difficult encounter in North Yorkshire, saying: "Harrogate are a team that underachieve year after year.

"They have a good budget and good players, so one of these years it will click for them.

"It's always a difficult place to go and a long way for us, but we'll go there in a positive mood and believe we can get something. We need to use Tuesday's second-half performance to kick on."