Wealdstone vs Tiverton Town

Tiverton Town come to Grosvenor Vale on Saturday (3pm kick off) hoping for another productive road trip.

The Britisgh Gas Business League Premier Division side have become away day specialists this season, winning four and drawing one of their six league games on their travels.

Tivvy, who beat North Leigh 5-2 to earn their FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round trip to Ruislip, are also scoring goals for fun, with 15 in their last five league and cup games.

Stones manager Gordon Bartlett believes away trips, particularly long distance ones, can help galvanize teams, who travel together by coach and he is not taking the Devonshire side lightly.

"You want to do well in the three competitions but one will be a constant battle until May [the league] while we're out of another [FA Cup], so this game and competition is very important for us.

"It is a home draw again but they have been on a decent run of late and had a fabulous win over Bashley last weekend [3-0].

"The away trips provide a real sense of togetherness - the long journeys tend to pull players together. I still think we should have had a bus for the FA Cup trip [to Bedford, where Stones lost 4-2 on penalties] as these things are all contributory factors. You try and get all the little things right so the big things take care of themselves."

Tivvy are managed by Martyn Rogers and Bartlett admits he needs to do his homework on the outfit, mid-table in their league, to avoid any hiccups.

"We've now got to find out more about Tiverton, as we don't know much about them," admitted the boss. "But I don't think there is a great deal of difference between non league sides at this level."

Bartlett hopes to welcome back fit-again Ben Alexander for Saturday's clash, meaning skipper James Gray will revert back to defending, having made an impression as an emergency striker in Tuesday's stunning 4-3 win over Staines Town. Gray was on the scoresheet and proved a handful for the promotion chasers, but Stones boss Bartlett insists that was just a temporary switch.

"That is not a permanent measure," he said. "Staines were not the biggest at the back and I thought he would cause them problems. He has done it once before in a friendly match and I knew from then that this was up our sleeve if we needed it. With Hugh-esy [Stephen Hughes] out I had to pick someone else and it worked out this time. If it had not everyone would have said I'm an idiot."

Tuesday's win elevated the Stones to 14th place in the Ryman Premier and Bartlett's optimism continues to grow, insisting his squad is two play-ers short of being a top half outfit.

"We're nine points off the play-offs - I look at my glass being more than half full than half empty," enthused the manager. "Our goal difference is only minus one, which shows most of the games we've played so far have been fairly close.

"We've played many of the teams in the top half of the table and I think we're one or two players short of being a top half team. There is not a big difference between the top and bottom halves and I'm sure things will balance out and we will get out of the position we are in."