Whitby Town joint-boss Nathan Haslam hopes his side can build on a dominant display against Mickleover as they look to topple bottom of the table Grantham Town on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off).

Town defeated their Derbyshire opponents 4-2 at The Towbar Express Stadium at the Turnbull Ground last weekend, improving on their disappointing exit from the Buildbase FA Trophy in the previous match.

The Seasiders now face a Grantham side, who are still in a transitional period under Dennis Greene, but currently remain rock bottom of the Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division table.

Manager Haslam sees the contest as an opportunity for this side - but admits they cannot take things lightly against the Gingerbreads.

"Grantham are bottom of the table and their home form isn’t great but they’re not doing too bad away from home," he said. "They’ve got a new manager in and they’ve brought new players in and this isn’t a Grantham team that are going to roll over, I’ve got no doubts about that.

"The games they’ve been losing have only been by the odd solitary goal. They’re going to make a fist of it to try and get out of that relegation zone and this isn’t the Grantham team of four or five weeks ago.

"They’re vastly improved and they’re going to start picking up points. We’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves. If we do that and have the right attitude we’ll be in a very good position to pick up the points."

In terms of improvements this week - after conceding two late goals against Mickleover - Haslam added: "The Mickleover goals were poor to concede. It took the shine off a very good win but we have made a point of that in training this week.

"If we want to keep getting positive results, we need to brush up and cut out those mistakes.

"Our standards have just got to be a little bit higher. Our aim is to keep clean sheets and moving forwards I’d like us to keep our composure and limit mistakes."

With a couple of players returning to the squad after suspension and others coming back from injury there is reason to be positive going into the festive fixtures.

There is one fresh injury absentee, though, with Jonathan Burn set to mis out with a shoulder problem - confirmed by Lee Bullock who has consistently praised Burn for playing through pain in recent weeks.

On team selection, Haslam said: "Myself and Bully have now got a bit of a selection headache. We’ve got Nathan Dyer and Jassem Sukar back from suspension but the lads who filled in last week did very well.

"Priestley Griffiths also isn’t too far away from returning. It goes to show that it’s not just about eleven players, it’s a squad game. We’ve had to make the most of our squad recently and they’ve stepped up when they’ve been called upon."