It's a big match at the top of the Southern League Premier South as first takes on second as leaders Gloucester City head to face AFC Totton at the Snows Stadium.
Currently the Tigers lead by two points at the top of the table ahead of The Stags who have both played a game more than third place side Merthyr Town who have played one less game than the current top two sides.
The table toppers boss Mike Cook is looking forward to the match against the side who finished second in the divison last year before losing the playoff final by the nearest of margins.
"Really looking forward to it. We’ve got four or five who are a bit sore from Tuesday so it will be just working on things, a little season, do the presentation of the analysis and what they are about.
They’ve recently played Plymouth Parkway so we’ve got that video and looked at a few stats.
Very good front line with Tony Lee up there and I just think they’ve got a couple of match winners, game changes. It will be an interesting game. It will see how far we’ve come or how far we haven’t come."
With City having played on Tuesday night in the victory at home to Frome Town and a short turnaround to the titanic clash, the boss has made efforts to manage the trainload and ensures rotation will play a big factor with another away trip down on the South Coast to Winchester City FC
"Everybody should be playing. Jared (Thompson) is a bit sore from the previous week from where he made a couple of penalty saves, he’s got bruising all down one side. It’s turned into a browny greeny bruise instead of jet black which it was a couple of days ago so that’s coming out of him.
Leads (Daniel Leadbitter) is not very well. Ty’s (Tyrone Duffus) knee has blown up a little bit but he will be okay by Saturday and we’ve got people like Dan Ball who are coming back after suspension, Saturday will be his last of those.
People like Kev Dawson and Hanksy (Joe Hanks) just need to have a quiet night on a Thursday stretching off. We need to do a training session on a Thursday but we are very mindful of what we can and can’t do. We wouldn't have any contact on a Thursday with what we’ve got injured and potential injuries. Even Dayle Grubb has a sore achilles so it’s a good night to just have a quiet one and not compounding it by running around on the rubber."
The Tigers away form has been a mixed bag with two wins, two draws and one defeat, while AFC Totton are one of a number of teams who have yet to lose at home in the divison having picked up four wins and a draw in their five home matches thus far.
In their last five matches in the league they have won three, drawing once and losing another to Dorhcester Town who remain the only side to beat either The Stags or The Tigers in the league this season.
AFC Totton backed by former Premier League striker Charlie Austin and Maltese international Sam Magri currently boast the joint second highest best attack (behind Merthyr Town) and also the best defensive record in the divison having conceded just the nine times.
That is one more than Gloucester City while they have also scored four more goals than the Tigers
Cook would be happy with any points that comes his way on Saturday but would love to get the three points that could send his side four clear at the top of the Southern Premier League South.
"I don’t think it’s an easy league so if you are going to go away and get a point it's not the end of the world.
We were really pleased when we went to Hanwell and got a 0-0 draw. We played them off the park, we created six or seven clear cut chances but we didn’t. If we play like that most weeks we are going to win more than we lose. I wouldn’t put too much pressure on us in away games, if we are winning our home games, and we get our occasional draws and you will have the occasional loss.
Everyone is geared to winning the game and winning as much as we possibly can. We probably haven’t scored the goals we’ve deserved to score and that’s a couple of factors with players coming back from injury and not necessarily being in form so once we get that right we will be okay I think."
With five games in 14 days, rotiaton will be needed especially with the upcoming FA Trophy fixture on the following Saturday against Coleshill Town, which follows strugglers Winchester away on the Tuesday night though the boss plans to take it one game at a time.
"I haven’t looked too far ahead of Winchester but we are just focused with what we’ve got to do on Saturday against Totton and we will have a bit of a body count on Sunday, see who we’ve got for the Tuesday and the following Saturday we have the Trophy game so there might be a bit of different personnel come in for the Tuesday night and for the Saturday compared to what we will have against Totton. We’ve just got to try and rotate and give everyone minutes at some stage.
It could be a very sweet weekend for the boss, who's birthday is the Friday prior to the game and will be hoping to be rewarded with the three points that helps his side in a push for promotion against one of the biggest budgets.
"Big 56! I am going away with the wife so I'm going to do a few things down the South Coast and then turn up at the game. Everything that we need to do is going to be done tonight (Thursday) and then booked a day off with the wife so should be a nice little weekend hopefully if we can pick the points up"
Make sure you get your tickets to support the boys down the South Coast as we look to make it four consecutive wins in a row and another step on the road to promotion and ensure the Birthday boss the win he deserves!
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