Added Oct 19th 2007 -

Bones face tough test

Chasetown v Rothwell Town

Saturday 20th October - 3pm k/o

For the second weekend running, Rothwell Town must travel to one of the BGB Southern League's big guns.

After runaway leaders Leamington last Saturday tomorrow sees the Bones at second-placed Chasetown in the only game of the day in Division One Midlands.

The Scholars have only played six games so far this season but have won five of them –justifying the pre-season belief that they would be among the serious promotion contenders.

Fired by six-goal top-scorer Dean Perrow, they have already beaten Bishop's Cleeve and Aylesbury United while losing only to fellow high-fliers Romulus.

They are also still in the FA Cup and have a home tie against Blue Square Conference North side Nuneaton Borough in the fourth qualifying round.

A win would see them emulate their success of 2005 when they reached the first round proper and held Coca-Cola League One side Oldham Athletic to a 1-1 in front of the Match of the Day Live cameras before bowing out in the replay at Boundary Park.

All that comes in stark contrast to the Bones' current form of only one win from their last six in the league and exits from both the FA Cup and FA Trophy. But boss Ian Jackson took great heart from their performance at Leamington when they only lost 1-0 to the side that has already pulled seven points clear of the chasing pack.

He feels a similar display tomorrow will see them take something from Church Street.

"I think Chasetown are a better side than Leamington. But we won't be changing anything," he said. "We'll go there and be positive and with a bit of luck will get something. We probably deserved to last week because we matched Leamington well.

"That result has certainly given us some confidence which the lads deserved because they've been working hard.

"We've changed our tactics a bit. We're perhaps a bit more attacking now and there's a good atmosphere back at the club again."

Rothwell from: Smith, Challinor, Tolton, Greasley, Flannigan, Rice, Sturgess, Boyle-Chong, Purton, Byrne, Koriya, Sneddon, Bewers, Stead, Bridgeford, Blake.

Thanks to the Evening Telegraph.