No pressure on Hebburn Town as Moore's men prepare for Hyde United test

Daniel Moore is remaining positive as Hebburn Town look to move on from their midweek defeat against Morpeth Town by claiming a home win against play-off rivals Hyde United on Saturday.

The Hornets found themselves three goals down against their Northern Premier League Premier Division rivals as a Jack Foalle brace and a Fenton John strike put the visitors in command of a keenly fought contest. Late goals from Amar Purewal and Aidan Heywood gave Moore’s men some hope of claiming an unlikely point - but an equaliser evaded them as they fell to only their third league defeat of the season.

However, Moore has revealed he has refused to focus too much on the result and stressed his players can still carry some momentum into Saturday’s home lash with Hyde.

He said: “The performance was decent so I’ve not read too much into it because we played particularly well on a pitch that was like a ploughed field. We said to the lads we could do better in both boxes but over a season, the stats won’t lie and we still have momentum. It wasn’t a negative performance or a negative team talk, it was an honest conversation over being better at both ends of the pitch. The lads showed great character to get back into the game - so we will take that into Saturday.”

The Hornets currently sit one place and five points above Saturday’s visitors as both sides remain firmly in the hunt for a play-off spot between now and the end of the season. However, Moore has insisted his sole focus remains on his well-versed target of chasing down the side immediately above his own in the table.

He said: “If we can win, it creates a big gap from them to us and you identify teams that can be there or thereabouts and they are one of them. I said a few weeks back, we are just chasing the team above us and that remains our aim. We can go for it, there is no pressure on us, every game we go and have a go and we are still on track to hit the points target we want to get to.”

Moore is awaiting news on the fitness of former Morpeth duo Liam Noble and Joe Walton before finalising his plans for the game.