Shaw's changes might keep Tadcaster guessing, as Tigers go into title tilt with their tails up

Worksop picked the perfect time to hit their stride, hammering Garforth 8-1 on Wednesday night in a precusor to one of the biggest games of the season.

And Shaw is determined to return home from Selby – the neutral venue chosen to host the game with Tadcaster’s ground unfit – with at least a point.

He said: “We take a lot of confidence into Saturday.”

“We went straight over to the supporters at the final whistle, we want to keep that buzz going and we’re going to need the supporters.

“The players should be feeling we’re getting it right, and I want them to take that into Saturday.

“We have to make sure we get something from it, and if we can get things right again then we’ll be a real handful.”

Shaw made some big changes to his line-up for the midweek game, leaving his three top goalscorers, Kyle Jordan, Mitch Husbands and Conor Higginson, on the bench.

He believes it was a good time to shake things up, and suggested it might leave Tadcaster guessing ahead of Saturday’s encounter.

“We were a bit brave and made some decisions that upset the group, upset the players. They felt a little bit aggrieved to be left out.

“We had Kyle, the league’s top scorer, Higgo the club captain, on the bench. It was a brave decision but I wanted more movement, a bit more creativity.

“I felt sorry for Jack Waddle, he can’t seem to hold a place down, but it was the right decision. It’s about winning.

“It’s by far the best performance of the season and I’m delighted to see the whole group showing what we’re all about.

“Tadcaster won’t be expecting us to do what we’ve been doing, we’ve been quite rigid recently, but we’ve got dimensions we can hurt them with.”

One player who has given himself every chance of featuring against the Brewers is Matt Booth.

The striker has bagged hat-tricks in both of the last two games.

But Shaw has challenged the player to prove he can do it against better opposition.

“We’ll soon find out if he is the real deal on Saturday,” said the boss.

“It’s alright scoring hat-tricks against mediocre teams, we need him to do that against one of the top teams.

“We’ve got good strikers, but all of them don’t seem to do it against the big teams, so it’s a new challenge for them.”

There may be some player movement in the coming days, with Tigers considering a couple of additions.

Any new boys will have to be patient, however.

Shaw said: “We’ve got a couple of players we’re trying to get in.

“We’re working on things, we won’t rest on our laurels, we want to create a challenge in the group.

“It’s not been for want of trying, it’s just been very difficult to get players to drop to our level.”