Tuffley, who are rooted to the foot of the table will host fourth place Westfields on Saturday in a Hellenic League Premier clash.
Westfields are on a poor run of form in the league with just one win and one draw in their last five games. One of those losses included a defeat to top of the league Malvern. These results seemed to have firmly put an end to Fields’ promotion hopes as they now sit in fourth, 19 points off of top spot.
“We’ve not been good enough recently there is no doubting that.
“We know we’ve got the quality to turn our form around though, we proved that in the win against Bromyard in the County Cup which makes it frustrating as to why we have not been showing it in the league,” said Westfields manager Phil Glover.
The side from Gloucester are also on a terrible run having lost five games in a row, a run that sees them rooted to the foot of the table, seven points off of safety with 14 games left to play.
“I’ve got to be honest, we are in a tough position.
“On the flip side I’m a positive person and I believe in my players.
“We’ve got a couple of players coming back from injury which will help us this weekend,” said Tuffley manager Neil Mustoe.
Due to some strange fixture scheduling these two sides have not faced each other yet this season. They play each other again in a month’s time on the 11th of March.
Tuffley lost last time out on Tuesday night with a 2-1 defeat to Royal Wootton Bassett Town, prior to this the Gloucestershire side had gone six games without scoring a single goal in all competitions. The goal they scored on Tuesday night provided them with a rare positive.
“We were on a tricky run and we hadn’t scored in a couple of weeks which was becoming a concern.
“For the league position we are in we showed a lot of bravery and composure on the ball.
“It could’ve been a lot better but it was certainly improved moving on from the previous week,” said the Tuffley boss.
Westfields also lost in their last match with a 2-0 defeat to promotion chasing Cribbs. The Bristol side took an early lead which seemed to kill the game off early on. The Herefordshire side stayed competitive though and kept it at 1-0 until the 79th minute when Aysa Corrick extended Cribbs’ lead.
“There were definitely positives we can take out of that performance.
“Cribbs are a very good side and we were competitive for most of the game which I was pleased with, but ultimately we still lost and that is all that really matters,” said Glover.
Fields go into this game as obvious favourites given the league positions of the two teams, but Glover is not taking anything for granted.
“Obviously we are aware of their league position but we try not to look too much into that.
“They are in a tough situation that they are going to be very keen to get out of so I’m sure they will make life difficult for us on Saturday,” explained the Westfields manager.
Both teams will be looking to get back into winning ways in what is sure to be an intriguing encounter.
