GUILSIELD and Llanidloes Town head into their respective festive programmes looking for points to climb the JD Cymru North.

The Guils travel to Porthmadog having beaten bottom of the table Penrhyncoch last weekend while Llanidloes travel west to Cae Baker to face the basement side on Saturday.

Guilsfield manager Nathan Leonard insisted the club’s inconsistent start had not surprised him after a raft of departures in the summer.

Sam Litchfield and Iwan Lewis departed for JD Cymru Premier side Aberystwyth while George Clifton, Adam Jenkins, Mike Jones and Robbie James have also departed for pastures new.

County Times: Action from Guilsfield's victory over Penrhyncoch. Picture by Darren Hyland.

Action from Guilsfield's victory over Penrhyncoch. Picture by Darren Hyland.

He said: “It’s been an up and down start but that was expected to be honest with losing so many of our spine from last season with the lads going leaving a big hole.

“What I would say is the squad is younger and really excites me. I think we have played some really good football this season, scored some great goals and should be six or seven points better off at least but individual errors at times have cost us.

“That is to be expected and we are learning each week, the lads are improving game by game and I think we can still push for the top six and a chance of winning two cups.”

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Meanwhile Llanidloes Town manager Chris Davies is hopeful of a solid festive schedule as his side bid to cement their second tier status.

Davies has been encouraged by his side’s performances against the league’s leading sides but insisted the hard work had to continue for the club to consolidate in the second tier and avoid the drop.

“It’s been a bit of a mixed bag so far,” said Davies. “We’ve had some great performances and results and then some really poor ones. We need to become a bit more consistent at this level as we’re finding out you’ve got to play well against every team to get points.

County Times: Action from Guilsfield's victory over Penrhyncoch. Picture by Darren Hyland.

Action from Guilsfield's victory over Penrhyncoch. Picture by Darren Hyland.

“It’s such a competitive league which means we face a tough challenge week in week out. Overall, we’re content with where we are. We have one more game to be at the halfway stage. We obviously would like to have a few more points on the board but we’re in a good position to kick on in the second half of the season.”

Davies said the improvements were evident with the Daffodils also in contention for silverware.

He said: “We’re seeing improvements from last year especially against the top sides.

“We faced the top three recently and gave all of them a real competitive game, losing out by a single goal on each occasion but we now need to take that next step and turn those performances into points.

“Our aim for second half the season is to beat our points tally for the first half. I think we can achieve this and if we do I think we’ll end up in a decent league position and it’ll be another step forward as a club in establishing ourselves at this level.

“We’re also hoping to successfully defend the Central Wales Cup and Montgomeryshire Cup.”