Gloucester City will look to get back-to-back wins for the first time under Lee Mansell this weekend as they host Spennymoor Town in the league.
Gloucester cruised past Kettering Town over the weekend to set up an away trip to ‘Hollywood’ Wrexham in the FA Trophy while Spennymoor had to go the full distance with Chorley before eventually winning on penalties.
Coming off the back of a 3-0 win, City will be full of confidence going into the game while the visitors find themselves stuck in an eight game winless streak, ranking them the worst team in the league based on form.
Both sides have had problems this season but having a good goal scorer hasn’t been one. On-loan Ollie Hulbert has scored eight goals in seven games for the Tigers since joining in October while Spennymoor striker Glen Taylor boasts 10 league goals this season, the joint most this campaign.
While Hulbert is the man in form in the league, he will face up against ex-Forest Green Rovers and Bermuda international Dale Eve in between the sticks. The ‘keeper has been a bright light for Spennymoor despite their form and kept a clean sheet on Tuesday before saving three penalties in the shootout to carry his side into the third round of the trophy.
Hulbert has enjoyed playing alongside experienced striker Matt McClure this season with McClure often dropping off deeper to allow the space for his quicker partner to capitalise. The Northern Irishman has struggled to find his best goal scoring form yet this season but has enjoyed plenty of game time under Mansell, offering more than just goals to the team.
Mansell was keen to stress that if his side play well then success will follow .
“At the moment we’ve got to take every game as it comes. We won on Saturday, We’ll take that bit confidence and momentum into Saturday and hopefully we can put on another performance,”
“That’s the main thing now, we got to take care of the performances and the results will take care of themselves.”
Kevin Dawson completed 90 minutes last weekend on his return from injury and will be expected to captain Mansell’s side. Fabien Robert is also available for selection but will have had to work hard in training to displace Tom O’Sullivan or Max Sheaf after their performances in the 3-0 victory.
Ben Gerring was shown a straight red card on Saturday for an off the ball incident in the build-up to a corner so will be unavailable until boxing day.
Tom Harrison filled in at centre back with Ben Nugent for just under 45 minutes and played formidably alongside the Welshman, so will have a good shout to start Saturday’s game.
The tie will be played this Saturday on December 4 at Meadow Park, kicking off at 3pm. Tickets can be bought online from Gloucester City’s club website here: https://www.gloucestersport.com/tickets
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