KENDAL may be out of the FA Trophy, but Town boss Tony Hesketh, views the United Co-op Lancashire Cup as a potential passport to a couple of prestige local derbies.

"I would like to make some progress in the Lancashire Cup as a future round draw against Barrow or Morecambe would be a good crowd-puller," he said.

"We have a big hurdle on Tuesday against UniBond League Premier Division side Radcliffe Borough, but it doesn't hold hold any fears for us and is a game for which we will be at full strength and hoping to win.

"We gave a very good account for ourselves at Conference North side Worcester City in the Trophy, but I thought that being without Paul Sparrow, whose wife has just had a baby, and injured midfielders Ricky Mercer and Stuart Cliff, was the difference between us winning and losing.

"Having said that I thought the defence was superb, James Salisbury was immaculate in goal, but we just didn't quite fire in an attacking game as I would have liked, but it was still a very good performance and we certainly were not outclassed by our opponents.

"We were well organised and our players carried out the instructions they were given extremely well.

"We stifled Worcester's chances in the penalty area to a minimum and their crosses all came from deep, and Salisbury and the centre-backs dealt with all of the aerial attacks bar the one they scored from.

"Sparrow was back with us at Clitheroe and will hopefully now be clear for the rest of the season. Given the forecast of sub-zero temperatures, I question the wisdom of us ever being invited to go along to Clitheroe, but having got there we tried to give it a go.

"Then the referee said the pitch was getting harder and he could not guarantee the safety of the players.

"Their manager wanted to carry on, but I was not prepared to disagree with the referee.

Although we hope to win the game, the UniBond League Cup is not going to bring us in much money and even if we get knocked out we go into another UniBond competition.

"The important business starts again this weekend with a home league match against Belper. We need to win as we have a target of 75 to 80 points for the season, so we have 36 to 37 to pick up from our remaining 24 matches.

"The way we are playing has given us a very good foundation on which to base our push. I am sure there will be setbacks along the way, but we will be attacking in our formation.

"Ricky Mercer sees a specialist on Thursday and if he requires surgery he could be out for six to eight weeks, but if it is just minor ligament damage he could be back in a fortnight. Stuart Cliff (hamstring injury) should be back in 10 days time.

"Dene Whittal-Williams, Peter Smith and Paul Osborne have small niggles but all three are expected to be available for this weekend.

"New signing Owen Roberts was cup tied against Clitheroe, but could be in action in a fortnight's time against Ossett as Whittall-Williams and Osborne will be unavailable as they are taking their Level Two coaching badge, which is a weekend course a fact I find hard to believe. Organising it on a weekend when players are needed is absolutely ridiculous."