Garstang FC manager is concentrating on the league for the next week

The Riversiders have three games in a week, starting with Tuesday night’s trip to Atherton LR, played as the Courier went to press.

That trip will be followed by back-to-back home matches against AFC Darwen and Prestwich Heys, taking place on Saturday and Wednesday respectively.

The league games offer the Riversiders an opportunity to move away from the lower end of the Hallmark Security League First Division North table.

Ten games into the season and they sit second-bottom, ahead of only Steeton, but taking heart from their penalty shootout Macron Cup win against Stockport Town last weekend.

Cookney said: “Everyone loves a good cup game and a good cup run but you look at the league table and that’s where we need to start putting it together.

“The next three games are winnable games, and although we had a couple of players out last week, we get them back and we now have pretty much close to a full squad.

“We felt against Stockport that we deserved to win the game outright and I think we can finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”

That light may be brighter yet during the week with three players set to join the club during the course of this week.

Having refreshed the squad that he inherited from his predecessor, Andy Payton, Cookney is pleased with the tools at his disposal and believes they will start to climb the table soon.

He said: “One thing I’m really impressed with since I came in is that we may be second bottom of the league but the players are always available for matchdays and always at training.

“It’s blown me away how committed they are to the cause and I don’t have to worry about where we are in the league because I know that we will get better.”