FC St Helens sit 12 points clear at the top of the North West Counties Division One North.
The Stripes have 10 games remaining and are looking to win promotion to the Premier Division in just their second season at the level.
Michael Smith took sole charge of the club in the summer, embarking on his first managerial role after spells on the backroom staff of Warrington Rylands and Skelmersdale United.
St Helens have overcome the early march from Atherton LR to win 17 of their openign 24 matches. South Liverpool and Atherton are chasing down the pace-setters with two games in hand, sitting in second and third respectively.
“The first 10 games was about getting as many points on the board as possible in that first month then see where we ended up. We got 28 out of 30 in the first 10 games, it was massive for us and it gave us the springboard to carry on,” Smith told Off The Park.
“We’ve got to keep ticking the games off, the teams around us and the games in hand that they have, they can go to within six points of us. We’re seeing it as a six-point cushion and we’ve got to keep ticking it off and gaining momentum, this next month is going to be huge for us.
“We’re clinical when we get an opportunity, Joe Barker has scored 25 goals this season, Josh Hall 21 – 14 of those for Garstang – the partnership they’ve built up has been huge,” Smith added. “They’ve got bags of energy around them, we’re always likely to score and we’re starting to become solid, a good foundation with Joe Mason in goal, Zak (Riley) leading them from centre-half, it’s been good.”
St Helens’ worse run of form came between October and November where they drew two and lost two, it proved to be a learning experience for Smith who took responsibility for the dip. But the response so far has been perfect as they extended their lead at the top.
He said: “It’s my first management role, first full season, we had that blip (in November), I take responsibility for it because we had cup games as well as league games in a stacked period. I made changes in the cup to give the lads the opportunity when they hadn’t played and it halted momentum a bit and it affected us.
“I asked questions of them and myself, and they answered them, we stuck to our principles and kept doing what we’ve done previously. We went to Ilkey away and conceded late on, drew 1-1 and played them a week later and won 3-0, from then we’ve won the last five or six on the bounce.”
