TIVIDALE boss Ian Long has praised his players after their unbeaten start to life in Division One of the Northern Premier League.

Newly-promoted Tivi continued their fine start to the season by beating Sheffield 2-1 at home on Saturday and claiming a hard-fought point against Chasetown on Monday.

The points haul pushes the outfit from The Beeches up to second in the table and has left manager Long delighted with the team.

He said: "The players have been fantastic and have deserved the points they have already got. I'm really pleased at how competitive we have been.

"The team's work ethic is brilliant and this players are the hardest working group that I have ever worked with.

"It is great to dream about how far we could go but it is now also important to keep our feet on the ground. It is only early days and our main aim remains to stay up.

"We are on the crest of a wave after our promotion and there is no reason why we can't keep that going even longer.

"Our true test will come when we lose back-to-back games. The way we react to that will decide how successful we can be."

Tividale have now welcomed forward Jazz Luckie to their ranks.

Luckie joins from Chasetown to help boost the team's firepower.

Long is now calling on people to support the players by attending more games at The Beeches.

"It would be great for more people to come a see what we are doing here. The players deserve that support. They work hard but also get the ball down and play the right way," he added.

"We are grateful for all those that come and watch us play on a regular basis but it would be brilliant if we could get more even people."

Against Sheffield, Tividale got off to a dream start when Lewis Taylor-Boyce fired into the bottom corner after just six minutes.

However, Sheffield were level on 35 minutes when left winger James Gregory's low driven cross was side footed home by Joel Purkiss.

As the game moved into stoppage time at the end of the second half, Tividale sub Leigh Downing collected a pass in the box with his back to goal and looked to be going nowhere until defender Brandon Caldwell dived in and brought him down. Once again he got up and made no mistake from the spot.

Then, just two days later, a depleted Tivi preserved their unbeaten run with a 0-0 draw against Chasetown.

This weekend will see them take on Shawbury United away in the FA Cup.

They will be boosted with the return of Danny Ashton, Mark Smith and Karl Edwards. However, they will still be without Chris Field, Matt Jukes and Sam Williams.