A Plain are hoping that last week's outstanding victory at Whitehaven will be the springboard for a successful end to the season.

The North-West Durham club were very much the underdogs but confounded the critics when they gave their best performance so far.

"It is never easy playing at either Whitehaven or Windscale.

"We have to leave early and because some lads work on Saturday mornings we are unable to field our strongest side," said Annfield Plain's long-serving secretary Marshall Lawson.

"We had the added problem of not knowing whether the game would be played. After all, our fixture was the only one to go ahead throughout the league and naturally some players were wondering whether the long journey would be abortive."

Things could hardly have turned out better for Annfield Plain, however, as they romped to a 6-1 victory.

"The result certainly made up for the long journey and we were in a happy frame of mind on our return," said Lawson.

The Plain made a disastrous start to the season, gaining one point from their first nine games but since then their form has been bettered only by the top four sides.

"We were beginning to wonder when our luck would change. We played three games in the first five days of the season and for the third fixture had to field 11 players who had not taken part in the first two fixtures.

"We had a horrendous injury list in the first two outings and our form did not improve until some of the lads were able to resume but we are more than happy with our performances once we have been able to field a settled side," added Lawson.

Annfield Plain now believe that they can go from strength to strength in their remaining 14 fixtures.

"There are still a lot of points to play for and after being bottom of the table in the early weeks, we expect to finish comfortably in the top half," Lawson said