Penistone Church could complete a full year without an away defeat in the league and gain revenge for last season's play-off loss tomorrow in their top-of-the-table clash at AFC Emley.
Since a 3-0 beating at Shirebrook Town on January 9 last year, Church have not lost in any of their 19 away league games – winning 13 and drawing six.
They can complete a full 12 months without defeat on the road tomorrow at leaders Emley, who are five points ahead of second-placed Penistone but have played a game more. It is also a chance for revenge as Church return to the stadium where their promotion dream died last season with a late defeat in the play-off semi-finals.
Emley, who have won their last 12 Division One games, are the league's top-scorers with 89 goals. Penistone have the best defence after letting in just 24 goals from their 26 games and keeping 11 clean sheets including the 1-0 win over tomorrow's hosts in the first week of the season.
"It's a huge game," said Church manager Ian Richards, whose side began 2017 with a 1-1 draw at home to mid-table Eccleshill United on Monday.
"It's a local derby between arguably the two best teams in the league. To go unbeaten away from home in the league for almost a year is an exceptional achievement. A lot of those games are in midweek and the players have had to make long trips after work.
"Being away suits us because we are very defensively organised and we can counter-attack really well. Emley will definitely be the hardest test we have faced in that run but we believe we can expose their weaknesses and get at least a point.
"It would be nice to rectify what happened in the play-offs last year but we've put that behind us with the way we have been playing this season.
"Being five points behind Emley with 16 games to go is not disastrous and the result won't decide who gets promoted. We have four players out who would normally start which is not ideal but the players who come in will have to step up."
Penistone played their first game of the year on Monday in front of 157 people and the 1-1 draw with Eccleshill was the exact same result as in their final match of 2016.
The visitors took an early lead but Church were on top for most of the rest of the match. Scott Whittington levelled early in the second half after a poor clearance from the visiting goalkeeper gave Penistone the ball in a great position.
Eccleshill claimed that there was an offside pass in the build-up to the goal but they were eventually relieved to get a point as Church missed numerous other chances and forced some good saves.
Richards said: "I was a bit disappointed – not with the performance, but that we couldn't get the win. We must have created close to 30 chances but there were some really bad misses and it's two points dropped."
Penistone have been drawn at home to Hallam in the quarter-finals of the Sheffield Senior Cup on February 1.
