JOHN Hughes is hoping history will repeat itself at Great Harwood.
"Three years ago, when I first took charge, I had a group of young kids, they did okay in the cups but stuttered in the league in the first few games," said the manager, who returned to the club at the back end of last season.
"But then they came to and we did well in the league.
"I have come back here and we again have young kids, we have done okay in the cups, with a good run in the FA Cup, but again our league form has suffered.
"I just hope history repeats itself and we start finding our feet - and that starts tomorrow (Sat)."
It is a big game tomorrow with Harwood making the short trip to NWCL Division Two promotion contenders Padiham (ko 3pm).
But this is on the back of one league loss- to Daisy Hill and two cup defeats with an FA Cup loss to Harrogate and last Sunday's 3-0 FA Vase exit at the hands of North East side Thornaby.
"We didn't play well again on Sunday," continued Hughes.
"We were awful and we had a lack of quality.
"There was only John-Paul Fagan, Keiron Fletcher and John Eastham who did well and you can't win games with three players.
"We did have a number of players missing in Ryan Fisher, James Dean and Darren Rogers and we are hoping they will be back for tomorrow's game."
Former Bury striker Gareth Seddon leads the line for Padiham and Hughes knows they face a tricky game.
"He will be a handful," said the boss.
"They are going well, they are second in the league but it is a derby game and who knows what will happen?"
Harwood will also come up against their former player Denis Hill.
"Our problem is confidence at the moment," added Hughes.
"We had plenty of it earlier on in the season but we have lost a few games and need to get it back and turn losses into wins."
