Non-League Day is here once again and Eccleshill United face the prospect of confirming their survival in the NCEL Premier Division.

The Eagles travel to Silsden knowing that a victory would secure their place in next season’s competition - which has been their underwhelming aim for a while now after an indifferent campaign.

Maltby Main who occupy the relegation zone are currently on 22 points, while Eccleshill remain on 29 points with both sides having three games left to play.

Survival is the goal for the Bradford side and boss Lee Elam is confident that they’ll achieve that, saying: “I’m sure that when our safety is confirmed it will be a nice feeling, but you just never know what the outcome will be, however, I’m sure we’ll be okay.”

Despite a frustrating season this time around, Elam believes that there is enough promise within the group to elevate the project further.

He said: “We’re close to the end of the season now, which means we’ll be able look at bringing a few new faces in.

“It’s important that we get the group together and bring who we want into the club nice and early in pre-season so that we’ve got a long time to work with the players. That way, we can continue to develop the relationships we already have within the group, and it means that we can start to build new relationships with the players that we bring in.

“We’d like to keep a large core of the players we’ve already got for next season; that’s something that will be key for us because we have had a bit of instability over the past year or so with injuries and changes within the squad.

“It’s a young squad too so we might look at bringing in a few more experienced faces into the group. Fine tuning is what we’ll look to do, but we feel we’ve got more than enough promise within this group going forward.”

Non-League Day offers the chance for supporters of Premier League and Championship clubs to go and watch their local semi-professional teams, with the annual initiative established to coincide with the international break, which is this weekend.

Giving his thoughts on the day itself, Elam pledged his unwavering support to the idea of it.

He said: “I think it’s a brilliant initiative and I’m glad they set it up when they did (2010). Myself included, as football players you have a dream of making it professionally but the Non-League circle is where it all starts.

“A lot of people probably don’t appreciate what Non-League football is all about – but when you’ve played in it and worked around clubs at that level, then you know.

“So, to have a day dedicated to Non-League and trying to get as many supporters to the local teams as possible, is a great thing, especially financially.”

Elam added: “Perhaps there could be more days like these, particularly if they continue to help bring more eyes to this level of football.”

Eccleshill’s game at Silsden gets underway at 3pm today, so if you’re free, try and get down to support not one but two of our local teams.