SAM Naylor has insisted Northwich can still contend for promotion despite a halt to their eight-match winning sequence before Christmas.

Blacks will start the New Year placed fourth in South Lancs/Cheshire Division One, 11 points adrift of a play-off position currently occupied by Liverpool St Helens.

The two teams are scheduled to meet this Saturday.

“Our target is the same – to go up,” said the player-coach.

“It is a harder task after losing to [leaders] Altrincham, who are in pole position.

“But we’re good enough, feeling confident, and capable of catching the teams above us.”

At the same stage last season, the men from Moss Farm were eighth.

Back then, they had a 17-point gap to close on second spot.

They finished as runners-up, losing in the last minute of a promotion play-off at Bolton.

Naylor said: “We usually finish strongly in the second half of a season, and that’s what we’ll be looking to do again.

“I can’t put my finger on why we seem so slow to get going.

“We lost four of our first five games this time, but it’s hard to say why.

“Perhaps we didn’t train as hard as we should, or didn’t play enough friendlies. But then we didn’t want to risk starting the season with guys out injured.”

With the exception of skipper Chris Dale, ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after breaking his arm against Liverpool St Helens in September, Northwich should be close to full strength for Saturday’s return fixture.

Richard Dale is available again after a holiday, while John Brotherton has recovered from a hand injury to start the past three games.

Overseas signings Sione Tangi and Grayson Thyne have settled in too.

Naylor added: “We’ve been able to pick the same core of players now week in, week out and it makes a huge difference.

“During the first month of the season, we made a lot of changes because we picked up injuries that unsettled us.

“Our confidence has grown during the run we put together in the weeks before Christmas, and that showed in our performance at Bowdon.

“We took them apart in the first 20 minutes, which was probably the best spell of rugby we’ve played for a long time.”