Things can hardly get better for Birtley Town who reached the semi finals of the coveted Durham Challenge Cup last week and continue to be favourites for the championship.

They visit Horden CW on Tuesday February 4 and the winners will meet either Billingham Synthonia or Dunston Fed in the final.

Manager Dave Smith, though, refuses to be deflected from his first priority which is to win the title.

"It is great to be in the last four of the County Cup and to be still involved in three other cup competitions but carrying off the championship is more important.

"We play 34 games in the league and a side is judged on how well they have done throughout the season whereas in cup competitions you can be successful playing just a handful of games.

"This is not to say that we won't be giving it all we've got in the cups and it would be marvellous to defeat Horden CW and play in the final of the Challenge Cup but I have said all season that I will only look ahead to the next game," claimed Smith.

On the manager's admission, Birtley did not play too well in the opening 20 minutes of their semi final tie against Wolviston last Saturday and Smith accepts that the game turned on the sending off of an opposing player.

"To be fair, at that stage Wolviston were leading and we were struggling a bit but when they went down to 10 men I fancied our chances. In the end, our numerical advantage told and I thought we dominated the second half."

To date, Birtley have seen off challenges from Barnard Castle Glaxo, Hartlepool Reserves, Bishop Auckland and Wolviston and Smith reckons they have done remarkably well to progress so far.

His worry now is that the demands of cup ties could impact on the team's league form although he was pleased to have 17 players at the ground last Saturday.

"The way I see it, we could be in a position where we have to play 12 games in 28 days at the end of the season and that would be a terrific drain on the team's resources. I keep telling the lads that we still have an awful long way to go and that everything is still to play for," added Smith.

Successive defeats for North Shields has improved Birtley's chances of winning the title. Until a couple of weeks ago the Robins had gone 11 games unbeaten during which they had taken 29 points.

Although they still lead the table, they are just three points ahead of second-placed Stokesley SC who have five games in hand and Birtley are just four points off the leaders, having played seven fewer fixtures.

Stokesley SC lost to Redcar Town in the North Riding County Cup last week and although New Marske won to climb into fourth place, Smith was obviously delighted at the loss of form shown by both North Shields and Stokesley.

North Shields are still annoyed that their game with Redcar Town a fortnight ago started 35 minutes late after the bus carrying the visitors broke down on the A19.

"At one stage, we did not know whether the match would take place. The lads were hanging around and it was certainly not ideal. We really felt we were hindered in our preparations," claimed secretary David Thompson.