FOUR games unbeaten, climbing the table, and scoring goals for fun – 2018 is turning out to be not so bad at all for Furness Cavaliers.

The Rampside Road outfit fired nine past Thornton Cleveleys reserves last weekend, to move up the West Lancs Division Two standings and out of the relegation places.

Kyle Delves followed up his four goals in their win over Tempest United reserves in the previous outing with another four, and having entered the year with a single-figure points tally at the foot of the division, Marc McAloone’s men are looking up.

The latest challenge in Cavaliers’ quest to stay firmly away from the bottom-two comes at Railway Meadow tomorrow, with a derby clash against Dalton United.

And McAloone is confident the corner has been turned for his side, with games in hand on almost all the teams around them and ninth place just four points above them.

“We’re out of the bottom two now and we’ve got games in hand on some teams,” said McAloone. “We’ve just gone above Padiham and we’ve still got four games in hand on them.

“We’ve got games in hand on a lot of teams around us. It’s not easy to win games in hand, but if we can win our home games, I think we’ll be all-right.

“We’ve got a lot of away games to come, and they’re not all easy, but we’ve got to hope we can get the lads together, get the job done and stay away from that bottom two. That’s the target.

“The target for the last couple of weeks was to get out of the bottom two. We’ve done that now and we now need to try to get as far away from it as possible.

“We’re only four points off mid-table. So it won’t be too difficult to get there if we keep up the performances we’ve been having.

“Saturday will be good test for us, and we’ll build on that.”

Victory last weekend leaves Cavaliers in 12th place in the 15-team division, with 10 games still to go in their campaign.

If they are to carry on taking results such as those against Thornton Cleveleys and Tempest, they will be looking for Delves to carry on scoring, but also to the defence to keep laying the platform for the team to fire up front.

“Kyle has scored eight goals in two games, but it’s a full-team performance at the moment,” McAloone added. “Kyle wouldn’t be able to score his goals if the defenders weren’t working so hard back there.

“The defensive unit are really solid at the moment, and they’re working really hard. We’re asking people to do stuff they’re not familiar with; Tom Harris, Sam Graham and Damo Thompson have been brilliant for us. Ryan Rodgers is a massive asset for us, and we’ve got some talented youngsters all over the place. It’s just about getting their understanding of the game in the right places and getting them to do the right things. We’ll get there, and I’m sure we’ll kick-on now for the rest of the season.”

As for tomorrow’s trip to Dalton, McAloone is looking forward to his side testing themselves against friends and rivals.

“It’s a chance to see where the lads are in terms of the other local talent,” he said. “They know when they go away and play against other sides in the league, the likes of Charnock, that they are going to be playing against some good players.

“But they are playing against a load of players they know, so it then becomes a little bit more of a mind game. It make is more of a challenge overall.

“But everyone loves derbies. Dalton will be a tough game for us, but we’ll go there full of confidence and we’ll do what we do best – try to be good in both boxes and try to get another decent result.”

Also in Division Two tomorrow, Walney Island welcome leaders Leyland United to Tummerhill looking to end the visitors’ unbeaten league record, with Millom seeking to keep their own promotion hunt going as they host Padiham reserves. Bottom side Furness Rovers travel to Thornton Cleveleys reserves, the hosts seeking a response to their thrashing by Cavaliers last weekend.