SHRIVENHAM manager Gareth Davies is expecting 90 minutes of blood and thunder when his side host local rivals Fairford Town in their Hellenic Premier Division game on Saturday.

Shrivvy have won their last seven league fixtures and will be looking to make it eight in a row against the team they beat 2-0 back at the start of November.

With both sides comfortably in mid-table, the game will take on extra meaning as bragging rights will replace any silverware that could have been won by either side this term.

Davies said he holds fond memories of the fixture as a player and is looking forward to attempting to achieve the double as a manager.

He said: “It’s a big game – for obvious reasons – and we’re looking forward to it. These are the sort of games that, as a player, you want to play in.

“They’re always blood and thunder and anything can, and often does, happen.

“This game has been a big part of my playing career and in my managerial career, so we’re all looking forward to the challenge.

“When we played them earlier in the season, it was very much a blood and thunder type of game.

“I’d expect nothing less this time around.

“They’re going to come and make things very difficult for us, but we’ve just got to do what we do and if we play to our capabilities then we’re more than capable of giving anyone a game.

“We just need to play our game and not get caught up in the emotion of the contest.”

Davies said continuing the winning run is not top of his list of priorities but instead collecting as many wins as they can from their remaining 11 league matches.

He said: “We still just want to win as many games as we can from now until the end of the season and if we can keep this winning run in the league going then great.

“We just want to finish as high as we can and if we can finish in the top ten, then it would be a massive achievement for us.

“It’s certainly doable too and it would be massive in our first season back at this level.”

Elsewhere in the Premier Division, Royal Wootton Bassett resume action after a two-week rest when they travel to struggling Abingdon United.

Meanwhile, in Division One West, Malmesbury Victoria make the short trip to Cirencester Town Development looking for their fifth league win in succession while Pewsey Vale host second-bottom Tytherington Rocks.