GREENMOUNT captain Mark Fallon could be forgiven for bemoaning his side's recent slips that have cost them vital ground in the chase for the Bolton League title.

While others may have been reflecting on what might have been, Fallon is getting excited over his side's next game.

And Saturday's match could not be tougher, as he takes his side to the Tyldesleys to face league leaders Westhoughton.

"I'm very excited about it. Looking at it objectively, it offers us an excellent chance to get within one win of the top team.

"And I'm confident that we can do that.

"We are at full strength, Stuart Leach has recovered from the back injury that has kept him out of the last three games and that should help us tremendously."

Fallon cited the teenager's absence from the bowling attack as one of the reasons behind Greenmount's recent slump.

"Without him, the bowling attack has not had enough variety and as a unit, the bowlers have not been able to give our main strike bowler, Mark Stewart, the kind of support that was needed.

"Yet I'm not that disappointed over our recent performances.

"True, we played badly when we lost at Walkden, but at Egerton last week we should have been able to defend our total and manage a draw at the very least.

"Every team goes through a bad patch at some point in the season. We've had ours, Walkden have had one and Westhoughton will have one sooner or later. It may start tomorrow. Who knows?

"None of us are like Arsenal, capable of going through the season unbeaten. That just does not happen at amateur level.

"Yet if anyone had told me at the start of the season that we would be third in the table at the halfway mark of the season, then I would have been delighted."

It is a big weekend for Greenmount, with the Hamer Cup semi-final coming up on Sunday.

And Fallon reckons that a cup and league double is still within reach.

"We have a good record in the cup -- we have reached the final three times in the last four years and won it twice -- and if we can close the gap on Westhoughton tomorrow, then anything is possible?"

Fallon, however, is fully aware of the task his side faces tomorrow.

"Westhoughton are full of confidence, Ian Pilkington and the pro Antonio Mayers are both playing like demons, but the game has perhaps come at a good time for us," he said.

"We know exactly what we have to do, and we have to be focussed on achieving a result that can close the gap at the top of the table."