HARROGATE Town return to Nationwide North action tomorrow after a 14-day break at home to Redditch United, complete with former York City player-coach Lee Nogan.

The veteran striker signed up to play under ex-Darlington team-mate Neil Aspin after parting company with the KitKat Crescent outfit last month and will feature on the bench.

Aspin said: "As soon as I knew he was finishing at York I was keen to get him in to bolster the squad and I think he will be a good asset."

Mark Haran is waiting on specialist advice to see whether he can play with a protective mask over his fractured cheekbone, or he may have to sit out the rest of the campaign.

York City trainee Steven Baynes will continue in place of the injured Mark Barnard at left-back.

New Northern Counties East League premier division leaders Goole have their destiny in their hands.

Wednesday night's win at Hallam edged them above rivals Selby Town and has left them in pole position for promotion.

Only Pickering Town can get together enough points on paper to overtake them. But the two have yet to meet at the Victoria Pleasure Grounds on March 19 and the winner of that will have the power to kill off the other's title dreams.

Goole's scrapping 1-0 midweek win came at the cost of centre-half Dave Watts, who will be missing from the line-up for at least two weeks with a pulled hamstring. Gary Shaw is likely to switch from centre forward to the back line to cover.

Left-sided player Craig Gorman is on East Riding Under-18s duty in Southampton, but boss Paul Marshall is hopeful Jimmy Gore will have shaken off a flu virus in time for tomorrow's tricky match against Mickleover Sports, who have had their fair say in the title run-in already by picking off several key teams with shock results.

Promotion hopefuls Pickering Town and Sheffield both have blank weekends, leaving the way clear for Harrogate Railway to extend their advantage over them with a win at second-bottom Maltby Main.

The Rail will go into the clash energised after a tense 4-3 win at Thackley on Tuesday, and the good news is that both Lyle Hillier and James Featherstone, who each bagged a brace but later came off with minor knocks, are expected to play.

A win will sustain Railway's incredible 100 per cent away record to 11 out of 11.

Selby Town will be aiming to gun down mid-table hosts Thackley with fingers crossed for a Goole slip up to re-open the door to top spot.

In division one, Tadcaster Albion travel to Parkgate with Steve Jones in place of the now suspended Matty Cressey at left-back.

The Brewers clocked up a comfortable-looking 6-1 scoreline in the home fixture, but manager Jim Collis will not be taking anything for granted.

He said: "I stated at the time that I thought that score flattered us a little. It was one of those games where we had eight chances and put six away and they didn't look a bad side going forward."

Updated: 10:04 Friday, March 04, 2005