RUSS O'Neill says his Guiseley side have regrouped and are ready for one of their longest road trips of the season this weekend.

The Lions travel to 15th-placed AFC Telford United on Saturday encouraged by a 1-1 home draw with Altrincham, which leaves them in seventh on 21 points.

This share of the spoils stopped a mini-rot of two successive league and FA Cup defeats for Guiseley, who have suffered with 14-goal top scorer Aaron Martin serving a three-match suspension, which ends after the trip to Shropshire.

Guiseley will also be missing midfielder Jamie Spencer at Telford as he serves a ban for picking up five yellow cards already this season.

Despite his side needing to be patched up, O'Neill says they travel with plenty of confidence as they recover from a frantic start to the campaign, with 10 league games in the opening four weeks.

Joint-manager O'Neill said: "It was a positive draw against Altrincham. It's been a good start to the season.

"We have had a few suspensions and that's something we can manage ourselves and improve on that. We have lost key players like Aaron Martin.

"The last seven to 10 days has been about us regrouping and managing to get back to where we were at the start of the season. We need to get back to our physical maximum. I thought we dug in well against Altrincham.

"It's a long trip down to Telford, but they have always been in Conference North. It is no different going to Telford for us.

"Telford did really well last season. They have lost a couple of players since, but they have recruited really well. It is a really tough game and it's a hard place to go.

"We have a feel-good factor, but we are a little depleted for Saturday.

"We will be patching up the side for Telford, but we are full of belief in the whole group. We will be going there with confidence.

"We played a quarter of the season's games in the first four weeks of the season, it was 10 games in the first four weeks. It's just Saturday to Saturday now, players need to look after themselves and be ready for a different way again after playing Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday earlier in the season. They need to be adaptable."

Meanwhile, fellow Guiseley joint-manager Marcus Bignot will be back in the dugout at Telford after being on international coaching duty.

The former QPR defender has been with the England Under-18s side as they travelled across Europe, playing Poland, Slovakia and Austria over the last week.

Meanwhile, Guiseley were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup following a 3-1 defeat to Curzon Ashton at Nethermoor on Tuesday night.