MARK Bower admits Guiseley must show a vast improvement on Saturday when they travel to face a Grimsby side he rates as the best in the league.

The Lions were defeated 3-0 at Gateshead on Monday, a result which extended their winless league run to three games and increased their relegation fears.

Bower’s men now lie just six points above the drop zone and the Nethermoor boss admits a similar display against Grimsby could have dire consequences for his men.

Guiseley were scheduled to play the third-placed Mariners at home on Boxing Day but the game fell victim to the weather.

Bower said: “We’re going to be facing a Grimsby side who are probably the best team in the league, so we’ve got to dust ourselves down, go again and make sure that we’re prepared for it.

“It has not been an easy week with the Grimsby game being off on Boxing Day and not being able to train.

“We’ve had a few lads with bugs and Oliver Norburn missed last week due to personal reasons, so it hasn't helped.

“It has not been an easy week and it makes it worse when you’re not winning games – and we’ve lost a couple in a row now.

“We’ve said we have managed to break these ducks relatively quickly when we’ve been on these bad runs, and we’ve got to do it again.

“But if we give goals away like we did in the first five minutes of the second half at Gateshead, we are going to find it very, very difficult.”

Bower was left bitterly disappointed by the Lions’ second-half capitulation at Gateshead as they conceded three times after the restart, with the first one immediately after the break.

Bower said: “It was a bitterly disappointing second half and we can't afford to give those sort of goals away because it just makes it so difficult for you.

“In the first 25 minutes, we were in the ascendancy but in the last two games we’ve just lacked a bit of a cutting edge and struggled to create many clear-cut chances.

“Like I said, Grimsby are the best team in the league. They have got themselves going and I guess everyone will be looking at it as a home banker.

“But we have looked good in spells in recent weeks and we’ve just got to make those spells longer.

“When it’s not our spell, we need to be stronger defensively so that we don’t concede. In the final third, we just need to show a bit more quality and desire to get on the end of a cross.

“But Grimsby is a new game and it will be a big, expectant crowd, with the emphasis on us to go there and spoil that as such.

“We knew the league was difficult, but we have contributed towards our own problems in the past two games and that needs to be sorted out.”

Bower, meanwhile, is keen to bolster his squad with new signings in January with Anthony Dudley having returned to Bury following his successful loan spell at Nethermoor.

Oli Johnson is not expected to be available for selection until the end of February and Liam Dickinson missed the Gateshead defeat due to personal reasons.

Bower said: “I think it needs a bit of a rejig, just to give us that other option, which at the moment I don’t think we have.”