NO harder a task could face new Selby Town manager Ian Dring.

He takes the anchor club to the home of Northern Counties East League first division pace-setters Athersley Recreation with no fewer than 35 points and 21 places separating them.

But 42-year-old Dring, a former apprentice at Nottingham Forest who was recently assistant manager at Maltby Main, is well up for the mission.

He said: “It’s a massive task and given the opposition we face, I’d be happy if we got a point from tomorrow’s game.”

Expected to bring in a flurry of new players, though he was remaining silent on who they were and in which positions they played, Dring pinpointed his main task as getting the Robins back on the ascent.

“What I am looking forward to doing the most is turning the club around,” he said.

“If the players show the same commitment as myself and my assistant Chris Glarvey then I am sure we can do that.”

Elsewhere in the first division, sixth-placed Knaresborough Town play host to Hallam, who are labouring near the foot of the table.

In-form Pickering Town, buoyed by two consecutive NCEL premier division victories, head to Parkgate minus a vital constituent of their recent upswing in form.

Liam Salt, their 21-goal principal predator, sits out the clash as he serves a one-match ban for five cautions.

That leaves a gaping hole in the Pikes’ striking armoury, so manager Jimmy Reid has detailed the role of goal-getting to Joe Danby, who will play alongside Ged Dalton.

Said Reid: “It’s going to be a tough game, as they’ve come back into a run of solid form after a change of manager, but I’ll play those two lads up top and it’s a chance for Joe, who has not started too many games this season, to put down a mark.”

Tadcaster Albion’s push to challenge the front four in the NCEL top tier lost impetus when they went down 2-0 at home to derby rivals Pickering ten days ago.

Now they face another in-form team when Heanor Town head for Albion’s Ings Lane ground, which remarkably has escaped the flooding that has deluged the majority of north Yorkshire.

The hosts not only have a yearning to return to the winning habit, but also possess a burning wish to avenge a 4-1 defeat to the same opposition earlier in the season.

Recalled Brewers boss Paul Marshall: “They smashed us back then, but that was the night we had a very young team out. All our players were aged 21 and under.

“Now we play them as they are on a great run of five wins and one draw from their last six games.

“But we will have a far more experienced side out tomorrow and our aim remains to win all our games, so we will be going all out for three points.”

The hosts will have to keep a close guard on Heanor’s leading marksman, Nathan Benger, who has poached 20 goals so far this term.

Third-placed Scarborough Athletic are away to lowly Armthorpe Welfare.

Harrogate Railway Athletic, hovering above a three-team log-jam at the nether end of the Evo-Stik League first division north, will be hoping to widen the gap after their trek to Curzon Ashton.