High flying Guils taking it one game at a time ahead of Rhyl clash

The Guils looked on course for all three points in the reverse fixture on the opening day of the season after Asa Hamilton had given them a second half lead, but had to settle for a draw after being pegged back by Mark Connolly’s strike.

Connolly is now interim manager at the Corbett Sports Stadium after the resignation of Niall McGuinness, but Guilsfield boss Leonard thinks Saturday’s opponents have settled well after the change of management.

“Mark Connolly has come in and he's got tons of experience in the Welsh Premier so there's no doubt he has the respect of all the lads at Rhyl, and they're one of those teams that you'd expect to be pushing for the top two at the end of the season,” he said.

“I think perhaps they've been surprised by the quality of the league after they've come down and maybe Airbus have found the same thing, the Alliance is a strong league as some of the results in the cup competitions go to show and sometimes maybe teams think it’ll be a bit easier than it is.”

Guilsfield’s unbeaten run of six games has seen them rise to fifth in the table, and a win on Saturday could see them up to third, but Leonard insists no-one is getting ahead of themselves at Clos Mytton.

“It's that time of the year where if you go on a little bit of a run you can put yourselves right up there but to be honest we're just taking it game by game at the moment. If you look at the table we're not far off it but you're only ever a win or a loss away from things changing dramatically as it’s so tight, so we're keeping our feet on the ground.

“We were a bit frustrated last week with the postponement but to be honest it’s probably done us a bit of good as we had one or two carrying knocks who’ve had a week to recover, so we’re at pretty much full strength, so assuming we’re able to train this week we’ll see how it goes.”