Trip to runaway leaders comes at bad time for Jones

Paulton Rovers manager Andrew Jones says that his side's trip to runaway league-leaders Windsor & Eton this weekend could not have come at a worse time.

Jones will be four players down on the squad he had going into Saturday's postponed match at home to Abingdon, with Joe White having completed his loan spell and returned to Bristol Rovers, Matt Cooper and Josh Jeffries suspended and John Lock unavailable.

And with Windsor & Eton having conceded only 13 goals in 30 matches in Zamaretto Division 1 South & West this season, Jones is expecting a tough test.

"It couldn't be harder and I couldn't have picked a worse weekend for it – we're four players down on last week," he said.

"We've got a good starting 11 and a couple of good subs, so I'm still quite happy with what I'm taking.

"They don't concede goals and if you don't concede then you win football matches.

"They've got two decent strikers, they're well organised and they've got a manager who's played in the football league.

"They have got a good budget and they're probably where they should be given the budget and experience they've got."

Rovers face another away trip on Tuesday when they visit mid-table Mangotsfield United.

United have faced a busy run of games this week and Jones hopes that this might work in Paulton's favour.

However, he warned that derbies are always difficult to predict and playing their local rivals may provide the Mangos with a boost.

"It's a derby and they're never easy – it seems to give teams that extra lift," he said.

"Hopefully they'll be feeling the effect of a lot of games and that might be the difference."

Despite the match at home to Abingdon having been called off on Saturday, Rovers have still played the joint highest number of games in the league and Jones is not too concerned by another postponement.

And with Paulton still in the play-off places, Jones believes that if his side lives up to his potential they will be in the play-offs at the end of the season.

"The postponement isn't over-worrying me because we're quite well off in terms of games played," he said.

"It does make other teams' backlog even worse though and I'm quite comfortable with the number of games we've played.

"We've got to look after ourselves and do what we are capable of – if we do that I think we'll make the play-offs."

The coach to Windsor & Eton leaves Paulton at 10.30am.

The Reserves lost 1-0 at St George Easton-in-Gordano on Saturday and have two home games coming up.

On Saturday they play Cutters Friday (3pm) and on Monday the visitors are Glastonbury Town (7.30pm). Admission is free to both games.

Meanwhile, the U18s lost 3-0 at Merthyr Tydfil last Thursday in the Southern League Youth Cup, while on Tuesday night they lost 2-0 at Keynsham Town in the Somerset Floodlight Youth League.

On Monday, they travel to Bitton.