Like all managers involved in the game, Silsden’s Chris Reape is desperately hoping the worst of the weather is over.

The Cobbydalers are struggling at the lower end of the Vodkat Premier Division but Reape is working hard to turn their fortunes around.

He brought Danny Bolton in to assist him and the pair have scoured the area for new players.

Reape said: “When you look at the table it looks grim. I know we are in the bottom four but we do have games in hand on the teams who are in the relegation places.

“Obviously we can’t take anything for granted but I feel that there are clubs in our league who are worse than us.

“We need points to be certain of not going down and we are doing what we can to keep everyone up for the fight.

“Danny has been looking around and we have brought Pete Sumner back to the club but he has been out of the game for a while so needs plenty of reserve-team football to get back into it.

“We have also signed a centre forward in Ben Stanford, who was at Colne.

“The main thing is getting the lads already here regular games because a lot of them have been unavailable during the season.

“You need a settled side to get the consistency needed. It’s also like starting the season again after playing just two games in six weeks but, fingers crossed, that is out of the way now.”

Silsden’s first-team squad is predominantly made up of the players that have come through the ranks over the last few seasons and Reape knows they still need time to develop.

“We do have a young squad but they have quality and they all know each other and play well together,” he said.

“If we put a winning run of four or five games together we can climb into the top ten.

“I’m convinced that relegation will not be an issue.”