The Ellesmere Port club currently lie in the bottom half but have games in hand on the teams above them. Manager Owen Brown has just celebrated his first anniversary in charge at Rivacre Park and envisages his team making a stealthy climb up the table.

Brown said:" Our league position doesn’t reflect the form we have shown of late because we’ve been involved in so many cup competitions. We got to the First Round of The FA Cup, we’re still in The FA Trophy and we’re in the Semi-Finals of the Cheshire Senior Cup. So we have fallen a few games behind other teams in the Nationwide North. Over the last 10 to 12 weeks, the lads have been in terrific form but most of those fixtures have been in the cups.

So it will be nice when we finally catch up with the league games. Hopefully we can continue our progress into the New Year and then we will start to climb up the table. From there, we could maybe start looking at sneaking into the play-off places."

The formation of the two regionalised Conference divisions this season has seen the most radical change to the structure of non-League football for 25 years. Brown feels that the new set-up is a resounding success.

He said: "Personally, I think standards have improved all round. Lots of teams seem to be playing good football against us in the right manner. At Vauxhalls, we always like to get the ball down and pass it around. Sometimes in the UniBond League in the past, the games were very physical. But in the new division it seems to be a more technical standard from what we have seen so far. The standard of football is better and the type of football that is being played has improved."

Joining the Nationwide North was another giant leap for Vauxhall Motors. The club were members of the local West Cheshire League until the mid-1990s but a series of rapid promotions have seen them progress through the North West Counties League and the UniBond League. Brown hopes that the success story can continue.

"Every step forward for Vauxhalls is a new door opening. So the club can be justifiably proud of being part of this new league. It didn’t look as if it would be possible this time last year when I took over as manager, but luckily the lads got into a good run of form from February onwards and we eventually finished comfortably high enough to qualify for the new set-up.

"Everyone at the club - players, committee and fans - were excited about the prospect of the new division and so far it has met all their expectations.

"The future progress of the club is dictated by certain circumstances. We are a very well run outfit but unfortunately we don’t have a great deal of support. And because of that, we don’t have a lot of financial strength. So we’ve probably got the lowest paid squad in the league. Because of that situation, our players are always going to be targets for other clubs who can pay them more. And when you get an injury crisis or suspensions, it is difficult to go out and sign one or two more lads to get you through the games.

"We coped very well with those problems last year because we’ve got some very adaptable players. But to push that next step onwards, you would probably want to bolster the squad a little bit and that is not really possible due to the finances.

"The one thing we definitely have in abundance is spirit. We’ve got a great group of lads who get on remarkably well together. I don’t think I have ever managed any club where every single member of the squad are friends. That sometimes enables them to go that extra half yard for their mates during a match.

"Also, we feel that we have some very good technical players for this level. They have performed remarkably well this season. OK, we didn’t get off to the best of starts in terms of results but the performances were good and we knew it would only be a matter of time before things would turn around. And that’s what’s happened for us."

Former QPR striker Richard Pacquette has signed for Conference club Farnborough Town after a short spell at Brentford. The 21-year-old played for Fisher Athletic earlier in the season.

Marine boss Roly Howard has been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest serving manager of any professional club in the whole world.

Howard has been in charge of the UniBond League outfit for 33 years and is set to retire at the end of this season.

In the Southern League Premier Division, Hitchin Town have appointed 32-year-old Darren Salton as their new manager. Salton is a former Luton Town and Scotland Under-21 defender. He replaces ex-Chelsea star Kerry Dixon, who left the Hertfordshire club last week.