"THE cup is our season" - a statement which Bacup Borough manager Brent Peters came out with a week ago and one which he intends to stand by even more this weekend.

Bacup go head to head with Warrington Town at West View tomorrow in the North West Counties League Challenge Cup semi-final first leg.

And Peters is adamant that he'd rather be in the mid to lower table league position that Bacup currently occupy, yet still be challenging for silverware, rather than near the top pile and out of all other competitions.

"Our season is at least two games now, but possibly three - these semi-final games and hopefully the final," he said.

"Warrington are hitting form at the right time.

"I'm not saying we're not because we've had a good run and at one stage were unbeaten for nine games.

"We've had a little bit of a blip as all teams do at some stage of the season, but we've come back from that.

"And if you analyse the draw that we got at Trafford last week, who equalised with the last kick of the game, then that was a good point when you consider Ramsbottom were beaten by them 6-2."

Peters added that he was impressed by his side's performance against Alsager last week, which resulted in a 4-1 win despite the difficult weather conditions.

As for Monday's defeat at Atherton Collieries, that's something Peters is happy to consign to the history books.

"I fielded a weakened side so that I wouldn't take any risks for this weekend," he said.

"If we were still challenging for one of the places to go up into the UniBond League then I would have put a full-strength side out, but we're not.

"But for all the money they have, I think the likes of Mossley would swap places with us because they are out of the cup and I don't think they are going to win the league."

He added: "I'm over the moon with the season we've had because the gulf between the North West Counties First and Second Division is massive.

"There are no bad teams in this division, and when we came into this division, for the first quarter of the season I gave the team which won the championship every chance.

"Obviously there were players in the squad who weren't up to the standard required at this level and they're no longer at the club.

"Now I feel we've got enough quality in this club to be able to beat Warrington over two games, but I would also like to think they are saying the same thing about us."

Peters believes he has a number of players who could cause Warrington some problems tomorrow, including captain Steve Stott, Nicky Taylor and goalkeeper Dave Felgate.

"In the quarter final, there was a 15-minute spell when Clitheroe put us under real pressure and Dave kept us in it by pulling off some great saves," he said.

Peters is confident that strikers Darren Emmett and Lee Wilkinson could also prove to be a lethal combination.