HIGHWORTH Town manager Jeff Roberts wants his players to up their work-rate from recent weeks when they take on Southern League Division One South leaders Frome Town on Saturday.

The Worthians are coming off the back of two heavy defeats in league and cup – the first was a 3-0 defeat to county rivals Melksham Town before being dumped out of FA Cup qualifying 4-0 by Tavistock.

Roberts felt his side "did not get off the coach" in last week’s FA Cup defeat and wants to see a dramatic improvement in work-rate from his players as they bid to make a return to their early-season form.

And with their hosts having only won one of their last four league games, Roberts feels an industrious performance may give his side a chance at doing just that.

Roberts said: “It’s just a case of trying to get that confidence back in the team now and going back to upping our work-rate.

“That’s one thing that’s always been there when we’ve won our games. We’ve worked hard and scrapped for everything.

“We haven’t really done that in the last two games, and we’ve been beaten badly.

“If we can get that confidence back and get the lads smiling again, hopefully we can get something out of the Frome game on Saturday.

“Slimbridge have gone there on Tuesday and got a result, so it is certainly possible.

“We’ve got players with a lot of ability, but you can have all the ability in the world, if you don’t work hard, you won’t win matches.”

Despite injuries to key players Ryan Morgan and Jordan Roberts, the Highworth manager is still confident in the ability of his remaining squad members to grind out a result in Somerset.

Roberts says lifting his players after two sobering results will be a challenge, but if successful, the Worthians boss believes his players can secure a shock result.

He said: “If we can get the players motivated on Saturday – because a lot of them are down after last weekend's disappointment in the cup – then we can hopefully have a good go at Frome.

“That’s all we want, we’ve got the quality there. It’s just a case of getting those 11 quality players to work hard and work together.

“If they don’t, those players on the bench have a right to start knocking on the door and asking to play because I don’t think there’s one player who could guarantee themselves a spot on Saturday.

“But if we can get the players back to where they were two or three weeks ago and get some fighting spirit back into them, I think we’ll give Frome a bit of a game.”