Gloucester City can go to the top of the Southern League Premier division if they defeat recently relegated Havant and Waterloovile at the TigerTurf on Saturday.
With current table toppers Merthyr Town not in action, Gloucester can go one point clear if they continue their 100% home record.
With the season less than a quarter played, Tigers boss Mike Cook is not concerned about the league table and instead on the performances that his side will produce.
"Looking forward to it. Not really talking about positions and things like that. With the lads we’ve just had a bit of banter about it in the changing room.
We are just focused on playing good, attractive football picking up the wins and draws as much as we possibly can.
We know it’s going to be tough to be going all season without losing so you’ve got to expect to lose a few times as well.
Overall it's a really positive, good win in the cup against Wimborne last weekend so I'm really looking forward to it.”
The Hawks who were relegated from the National League South last season have made a steady start to life back down a divison having won just three of nine fixtures, but also they have only lost the once which was their most recent fixture a 5-1 loss away to Sholing FC.
Havant are the joint third top scorers in the division and up until their trouncing to their fellow South Coast side boasted the best defence in the league and boasted one of the last unbeaten records in the league.
While aware of the Tigers’ strong home record in contrast to that of South Coast based side winless away record, manager Mike Cook is still aware of the threats that they can possess.
“They look pretty good, they’ve got the lad (Ryan) Seager up front who used to be at Hungerford who scored lots of goals, and Lee Bradbury who’s up there as well, good front two.
They look nice, solid and compact when they don’t have the ball.
It’s going to be a tough game, there’s no easy games in this league anyway so we’ve just to make sure we create a little bit more than we did last week and try and put those chances away as well."
City have struggled with injuries this season with Riley McGregor and Harry Burns forced off against Wimborne, and Cook gave an update on their situations and all the other players on the treatment table including the banned Dan Ball.
“[Dan] Bally will be out for three games so he should miss Havant, Frome and Totton so he’s definitely out. Good thing is we’ve got Hanksy back. He will be back in on Saturday, that rest has done him a world of good. Jamie Reckord will be back.
Unfortunately Riley McGregor has tore his cartilage in his knee so he’s going to be out for at least a few months so that is a bit of a blow.
Harry Burns might be okay, he’s come through this week we’ve got to see what he’s like just before training.
The usual suspects are still out in Harry Pinchard and Mekhai Bessasa-Grant. We are lucky enough to get Spence [Spencer Hamilton] back as well so he may come on for some minutes on Saturday.”
As well as players coming back the Tigers’ announced the new arrival of centre forward Jadyn Crosbie joining on loan from National League South side Torquay United.
With the injury list still huge and a competitive squad needed to challenge for the league the boss was delighted with the addition of the 20 year old who had been a long term target for the club.
“Funnily enough when Phil Clarke was here doing the analysis we looked at the lad Jaydn Crosbie. He was doing really well at Mangotsfield last year and scored a lot of goals.
Obviously he got a great offer from Torquay, he’s been a little bit in and out and been mainly used as a sub but we do like him, he’s got a lot of potential so when Paul Wooton phoned me up and said would you like to have him we jumped at it.
One thing we’ve missed is we’ve missed a big un to relieve the pressure when we have been a bit under the cosh, balls coming back a little too early, so we really are pleased to get him in. He looks like a good signing so we really are looking forward to working with him the near future.”
To see Crosbie and the rest of the City players in action on Saturday make sure you get your tickets as we look to continue our 100% record at the fortress the TigerTurf Stadium.
For me, this match will be very impressive. Gloucester City is the best. I love watching this match and playing 101 games at once.