Crowe's men play Hyde and seek win

Neil Crowe’s men travel to Hyde United tomorrow, looking to protect their unbeaten away record.

Brig have won three and drawn one of their four away games this terms – a run which has helped them go one point clear at the summit.

Tomorrow will be a slightly different test as Hyde play on a 4G artificial pitch – something which is not too much to Crowe’s liking.

“In some respects, it will be a good surface to play on,” said Crowe. “But in other respects, it’s not proper football in my opinion – football should be played on grass.

“The ball bounces differently, but some players like it and some don’t.

“It will be a good surface for passing and that should suit us because we like to get the ball down and play. We train every week on a 4G pitch at Preston’s College, so it’s won’t be alien to us.”

Brig made it five wins out of six in midweek when they enjoyed a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Mossley at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.

That result was the perfect response to the team’s first defeat in a month on Saturday when they suffered a surprise 2-0 loss at home to Colwyn Bay.

“Saturday was always going to be a hard game,” said Crowe. “I thought it was an even game but then we got done with a sucker punch at a set-piece and then they got an iffy penalty with five minutes to go and it was game over when that went in.

“Before that though, we hit the crossbar twice and the post. If one of them goes in, it’s a different story.

“On Tuesday, we started slowly – Mossley were quite organised to be fair.

“They were hard to break down and frustrated us in the first half.

“We changed a couple of things tactically at half-time and in the second half, I thought we were superb. It was one of our best performances for a while.”

On the injury front, Brig will still be without winger Ally Waddecar (knee) and skipper Matt Lawlor is unavailable.

“I’m hoping to see some light at end of the tunnel next week with Ally,” said Crowe.

Elsewhere tomorrow, Burscough host Farsley, Clitheroe travel to Colwyn Bay and Kendal entertain Glossop.