PAUL Phillips says his Guiseley side will relish their underdogs status in a cup clash this weekend as they look to bounce back from a Covid and illness outbreak.

The Lions were forced to postpone their clash at Marine last weekend after being reduced to just nine players in their squad.

But now Phillips’ men are ready to return to action with a mouth-watering Isuzu FA Trophy third round clash with Vanarama National League side AFC Halifax Town on Saturday at Nethermoor (3pm kick-off).

 

Halifax go into this weekend’s Trophy tie fresh as their league clash at Southend United on Tuesday night was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Meanwhile, Guiseley are 15th in the Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division.

New boss Phillips has only seen his side in action once since taking over at the end of last month and is looking forward to seeing his charges tackle Halifax in a West Yorkshire derby.

He said: “It’s a massive game. It’s a derby. People will be expecting us to lose it.

“We are hoping that Halifax will bring a fair few fans for it.

“They (Halifax) are a full-time team. We are going into it as underdogs. It is the financial side as well. There is still decent prizemoney in the Trophy. It’s about £3,000 and no club would turn their nose up at that.

“If you look at Guiseley we have been where Halifax are now. We are still a big scalp in this league.

“I think it’s a game to gauge where we can go.

 

“We have done our homework on them. We will be trying to bring in a couple of new players before Saturday. That will give the lads a bit of a kick up the backside.”

Meanwhile, Phillips says it was unfortunate last weekend’s clash at Marine was called off as he has only seen his squad in match action once so far during his reign, as he looks to continue to assess his squad.

He added: “We have quite a big squad with quite a lot of youngsters. “It’s been hard, the first few weeks in a new job are always hard. The game being off has put us on the back foot We are trying to bob on. We have a bit of steel and experience. We also have a lot of young lads who need guidance.

“We did want to see the lads in more competitive games. We wanted to kick on after the Morpeth win.

“We had four or five of the squad who had Covid and five or six were out with injuries.”

Guiseley will follow up their weekend Trophy tie with a home league clash against Lancaster City on Tuesday, December 20 (7.45pm) a busy upcoming festive match programme for the Lions. Guiseley will then face a home league clash with Atherton Colleries on Boxing Day, a trip to Bamber Bridge on January 2, followed by a home game against Nantwich Town five days later.

Phillips added: “We are 15th in the league, but if we win our next two games we can go back up where we want to be in the top half of the table and the play-off places.”