MALMESBURY Victoria joint-manager Josh Langley believes whichever team gets to grips with playing conditions fastest on Saturday will come out on top as his side welcome Pewsey Vale to the Flying Monk Ground in Hellenic League Division One West.

Vics are in excellent form on their own patch, having won their last four in all competitions, as Langley believes opposition teams have struggled to adapt.

But the Malmesbury boss says Pewsey are a smart team and have the quality of player that will be able to change their passing style into a more pragmatic approach.

Malmesbury have already beaten Vale twice in cup competitions this term, but despite leading the head-to-head record 2-0, Langley is still expecting a tough test.

He said: “I think Pewsey are quite similar to us in that they like to play football – arguably even more than us – but the pitch at home isn’t the best at the moment and it suits us more.

“I’m not saying it’s an advantage, but opposition teams have come here and tried to get the ball down and play against us and it hasn’t worked.

“We’ve suited the pitch better, got the ball forward as quickly as we could and it worked, but I think Pewsey will do that as well.

“They’ve got a lot of good players in their team and the two cup games that we’ve played them, it was a really good battle, so I’m expecting another tough game on Saturday.”

Malmesbury have picked up six wins from their last seven games and have scored 19 goals in their last three matches.

Langley is proud of his team’s ability to score goals from all areas and says they won’t change their attacking intent, no matter who they play.

He said: “The way we’re going at the moment, it’s really good to see that we’re throwing bodies forward and everyone wants to try and score.

“We’ve got Shane Bumphrey in red-hot form – he’s scored 30 goals already this year.

“Sam Parker – our captain – is just getting back to full fitness and he scored two the other week, which was good to see.

“Then we’ve got Andy Baker, who had four weeks off, came on last week and scored a hat-trick, so it just goes to show how many really good attacking players we’ve got.

“We’ll always try to set up to win and score as many goals as we can, but also defend when we have to.”

Meanwhile, in the Premier Division, Sam Collier’s Royal Wootton Basset Town host Wantage Town, Shrivenham welcome Holmer Green to Barrington Park, while Jody Bevan’s Fairford Town are without a fixture until February 2.