HALESOWEN Town might have cause to hope the wet weather hangs around a bit longer - writes NICK PULLEN

While the Yeltz have been left sidelined in recent weeks, their rivals have continued to flounder.

Halesowen’s prospects improved further this week when second placed Leek Town lost out 1-0 to Belper.

As a result, Coalville Town have now climbed above them into second spot, but the important point from Halesowen’s perspective is the fact both sides have now lost their games in hand advantage.

Chairman Colin Brookes said: “Everytime we don’t play, we seem to pick up points. We’ve been top of Evo-Stik League Northern Division One South for the past five weeks or so, but only by virtue of the fact we’d played more games than Leek and Coalville.

“They’ve lost that advantage now and we sit top on merit.”

Halesowen had an inkling their game at Sheffield FC would be called off last Saturday, especially as the South Yorkshire club haven’t played a home game there since early December.

Consequently they had already arranged a friendly fixture at RAF Cosford, which they won 3-0.

Brookes said: “It proved a worthwhile work-out as everybody got 45 minutes. That included fit again Chris Lait and Neil Mackenzie, along with new signing Aaron Forde.

Halesowen are scheduled to visit Gresley Rovers this Saturday and Brookes believes the game stands a better chance of being played. If the game goes ahead, Tom Tonks will be missing as he still has a one match ban to serve.

Brookes added: “We just have to try and keep ticking over at the moment and hope the weather improves soon. Then it’s a case of grinding out results.

“We have a string of four successive home games coming up against Leek, Belper, Scarborough and Chasetown, which will probably determine where we finish ”.

Brookes is also aware there’s a prospect of Eastwood Town dropping out of the league.

The Yeltz have already beaten Eastwood in Nottinghamshire and were due to play them at home over Easter Bank Holiday weekend.