With second-placed Steyning Town the next visitors to Victoria Park in a week’s time, this afternoon’s clash with fellow top-five side Newhaven Town at the Trafalgar Ground is set to be the first of two big battles coming the Green Lions’ way in their bid for the Southern Combination Premier Division play-offs.
‘We have had a comfortable three weeks, but in the next three or four weeks the challenge goes up several notches. It is a really important month for us,’ said GFC manager Tony Vance, whose side have won all three of their games since the turn of the year on home soil.
‘We are scrapping out wins at times, I want to see a little bit more consistency in our play over the 90 minutes, but all in all we are not doing too bad. I just always push for more.
‘The next two games will dictate whether we are going to be in or around the play-offs.
'There is a lot of football still to be played this season of course, but these are two big games for us.’
The Green Lions welcome Ross Allen back into the match-day squad after he was rested for last week’s win over Lingfield, but they will be without the injured Jamie Dodd and the unavailable Jacob Fallaize.
‘Jacob is away for the next two games, unfortunately, which is not ideal,’ Vance said.
‘Having Vauds [Tom Vaudin] back, Gil [Hunter] stepping up the way he is and not looking out of place, and Jacques Cauvin coming back as well negates, to a degree, the loss of Jacob and Doddie, who injured his shoulder a couple of weeks ago and then fell on it again last week.
‘We are getting bodies back, though it’s a couple in and a couple out at the moment.’
Allen was among the scorers when GFC produced arguably their best performance of the season in the reverse fixture at Victoria Park in September when they won 7-1.
Vance was quick to acknowledge that today’s match will likely be much closer, with Newhaven also unbeaten since the turn of the year and having registered their own 7-1 win in midweek in the Peter Bentley Challenge Cup away to Godalming Town.
‘It was a bizarre one in that we smashed them and it probably should have been 13,’ said Vance recalling the September encounter.
‘After that, they went on a bit of a nosedive, but now they have come back to form and are a force again.
‘It was one of those games where everything went right for us and wrong for them – it does not mean anything when it comes to this weekend.’
Looking slightly further ahead, the GFC manager also gave an update on the fitness of the club’s record appearance holder Matt Loaring, who has not played since the Muratti Vase final victory in May.
‘Matty has had an operation and he is now in the hands of Dan Guillemette, the physio. I would say it is looking like early March.’
The Green Lionesses, meanwhile, are back in action at Victoria Park tomorrow as they look to get over the disappointment of conceding a last-minute winner there last weekend, despite having looked the more likely to snatch the three points against Bemerton Heath Harlequins.
Anna Gauvain’s team are up against Bournemouth Sports Reserves, who they drew 3-3 with in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
GFC Women will be without Vicki Rang, Amy Dallamore and Jess Frampton, but Elise Le Lacheur returns from injury to face a side who are two points and two places behind them in the table, albeit with games in hand.
Tomorrow’s match kicks off at the later time of 3.30pm.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.