Buxton joint boss Steve Halford focused on building momentum over festive period

Halford said he had not see any outstanding teams in the division yet and, with everyone gaining wins over each other, the key was staying hard to beat and slowly closing gaps to see where it takes them.

“The key to this league is just trying to keep momentum, get as many points as we can and keep doing our own job,” he said.

“I am not looking at the league table now until January. I only looked at it the other day for the first time in weeks and it is what it is.

“We have tough games over the Festive period, but so do other teams. So we just have to concentrate on ourselves.

“The thing with the league this year is that there are probably seven or eight teams in it and they are all beating each other. Somewhere along the line those seven or eight teams have to play each other every week.

“Everyone is beating each other. So our message is just look after ourselves and see where that takes us.

“Let’s not get carried away, let’s keep plodding away and by the end of January let’s see where we are.”

He continued: “There are gaps appearing. We were below that gap but we have clawed it back. Matlock and Hyde are on our tails but there’s a bit of a gap there.

“We are not going to give up any fight. We want to win as many games as we can and see where it takes us.

“I have seen teams that are not bad. But we’re not bad either. It’s just about consistency levels for us.”

Buxton’s results have taken a turn for the better this month and Halford said: “We have got back to what we were doing basically - being hard to beat and working hard for each other.

“We’ve not turned a corner yet. We need to put five, six, seven results together now. It’s slow steps at this moment in time.

“We are slowly building momentum. But you can’t win or lose anything in December and January.

“It’s all about trying to get us into a position where can affect things. If you look at the last three games we have won them but not gone anywhere.

“We haven’t moved up or down, but the gap above us has closed.

“We just have to keep concentrating on ourselves and stay hard to beat.

“Every single one of our lads are now buying into what we are doing and we have probably found our identity a little more in how we want to play and go about things.”

He added: “The lads now all know their specific jobs. Even early in the season when we were wining, it wasn’t fluent.

“Although we have lads here from last year, it’s still a new team and if you looks at the teams up there they are all sides that have been together for a few years.

“So, if you look at it, we are probably where we should be.

“Yet, the thing is, we have not seen anyone yet where we have gone ‘wow, they are great’.”