HARROGATE Town boss John Reed has deemed tomorrow's home clash with Runcorn the most important of his four-year tenure at Wetherby Road.

Town have not won for five games and, while a victory could lift them to second, if their poor run continues they will find themselves swallowed up by the pack below them in the Conference North table.

Only three points separate second-placed Southport from ninth-placed Runcorn, with Harrogate in fifth. "It's a massive game for us, the biggest in my four years at Harrogate," said Reed.

"We've highlighted it because of what's happened in the last five weeks. If we get beat, there are teams as low as 12th who are only two points behind."

He added: "At the end of the day, we're still among it. We've had a bad run but we're all going to try to give that much more effort."

Reed reiterated his side's problems have been putting away chances, though one of the guilty party, ex-York City striker James Turley, who has fluffed two consecutive penalties, drops out due to a hamstring injury.

"We're creating opportunities but not scoring," said Reed, who has failed in a bid this week to sign Gainsborough striker Gareth Grant.

"We created 24 against Redditch last week (2-1 defeat) and if we had won 10-2 that wouldn't have been unfair. They had two chances and scored twice."

Updated: 10:58 Friday, November 26, 2004