MANAGER Tony Hackworth has hailed a January of home comforts at Pickering Town - but has resisted the temptation to set his team a points target for the month.

The Pikes, who saw their Northern Counties East League premier division fixture at Retford on Saturday postponed due to snow, face six home league and cup games in January, and none on the road.

It starts with this weekend’s return visit of Retford (3pm), with the following Saturdays bringing Heanor Town, Bridlington Town, Shaw Lane Aquaforce and bottom team Nostell Miners Welfare to Mill Lane, while Cleethorpes Town come for a League Cup fourth round tie on Tuesday, January 27.

Hackworth had demanded nine points from nine over the festive period, and, with the Retford trip called off, is still aiming to complete six from six tomorrow, but he has refused to set longer-term aims for his 13th- placed side.

“This sequence of home games puts us in a good position with no travelling but for me it’s a case of taking one game at a time,” he said.

“We’ve got some tough fixtures in this period, against the likes of Heanor, Bridlington and Shaw Lane, who are all up there, and we also have Tadcaster to come in March.

“These are great fixtures coming up and I’m a great believer in the old cliche of taking one game at a time.”

As for the long run of home games, Hackworth said: “For me it’s a bit unusual but it’s what Pickering are used to over the years.

“The first seven or eight games are away from home due to cricket being played at the Recreation Ground so we’re playing catch-up with our home games now.

“It’s still unusual to have the whole of January at home - it’s bizarre - but hopefully it’s good for us.”

Pickering’s game at Retford last Saturday was postponed at 10am, after Northern Counties East League chiefs took the unusual step of informing clubs they had the authority to call off matches themselves that day if they believed there was no chance of the game being played.

Hackworth added: “You normally get local opponents around Christmas so to get one of our furthest trips was a bit strange, but everyone was still looking forward to it so it was disappointing it was off.”

Yesterday, Harrogate Town lost 4-2 at promotion-chasing Guiseley in Conference North. Jake Speight and Paul Clayton scored in the second half with Town already 4-0 down.

Gary Bradshaw, Alex Peterson, James Ghaichem and Jimmy Beadle scored as fifth-placed Scarborough Athletic beat Brighouse Town 4-0 in Evo-Stik League division one north.

Harrogate Railway lost 4-2 at Farsley. Rail’s scorers were Michael Morris and Rob Youhill.