Confidence will be high in both camps at Park View Road according to Clarets Head Coach Glenn Pennyfather.
His table-topping Chelmsford City team make the short journey to Kent to face Welling United, who secured a morale-boosting victory at bookies favourites Havant & Waterlooville at the weekend.
Both sides enjoyed notable wins on Saturday, Pennyfather’s men defeating another fancied team in Eastleigh, and he said: “Welling have had a super win and you certainly can’t knock that. Havant are a lot of peoples’ favourites for the title so it’s great for their confidence and they’ll look to build on that. But I’m only concerned about us as we always have the ammunition to score and need to make sure we don’t concede.”
United have similarly made an unbeaten start to their Blue Square Bet South campaign in the three matches they’ve competed in so far. A low key goalless draw on the opening Saturday was followed by a four-goal stalemate at local rivals Dover Athletic three days later then they shocked Havant with a late 3-1 triumph at Westleigh Park.
Chelmsford will give fitness tests to captain Dave Rainford and centre-half Adam Tann as a precaution before the game though Pennyfather is loathe to tinker too much with a winning formula, continuing: “It’s important to be flexible but I won’t be making changes for changes sake – the players who aren’t playing will have to be patient as we’ve got winning habits going on at the moment. The older players are helping the younger ones and the more you win the more you want to maintain that winning feeling.”
He also received good news on Monday when he learned the foot injury to right-back Ben Nunn sustained on Saturday will force him to miss less football than first thought. It was initially feared the youngster had broken a bone though a closer examination revealed his foot was merely bruised.
Summer signing Sami El-Abd, his colleague in defence, believes familiarity at the back is important when preventing goals. “It looks like we’re gelling very quickly and we’re all enjoying it,” stated the centre back who joined City from Hayes & Yeading United. “We’ve got experience and that’s now two clean sheets in a row. Glenn Pennyfather believes, and I believe, that clean sheets will help us push on and be right at the top at the end of the season. If we can keep this going then teams will be on the back foot. That’s the plan, anyway!”
