HIGHWORTH Town boss Jeff Roberts will warn his side to be wary of a new manager bounce when they travel to Basingstoke Town on Saturday.

Basingstoke have endured an awful start to the Southern League Division One South season and sit bottom of the table, having recorded no wins and just three points from eight games.

The Hampshire club have opted to make an early managerial change, with Martin Kuhl replaced by his former assistant, Dan Brownlie, at the helm late in September.

Brownlie’s first match in charge marked an immediate improvement in fortunes as Basingstoke beat North Leigh in the FA Trophy last weekend.

Ahead of his side’s trip to The Camrose this weekend, Roberts is keen for the Worthians to avoid suffering the same fate as North Leigh.

“Basingstoke have got a new manager in, and it is always difficult when someone new comes in as it means new players come in as well,” said Roberts.

“They will pick up a little bit and it will be a tough one.

“In this league, you can’t afford to look at positions in the table. If you don’t turn up against the bottom sides, you are in for an awkward game.

“We will go there positive and if we can carry on from the Frome game last weekend in terms of our work-rate, we should be OK.

“We don’t quite seem to score enough goals at the moment.

“Defensively, we are nearly there, it’s just in that last third we are missing a bit of quality.”

Highworth head to Basingstoke on the back of a heavy 4-0 defeat at home to local rivals Swindon Supermarine in the Southern League Challenge Cup on Wednesday night.

The Worthians held their higher division neighbours to a goalless draw in the first half before falling away after the break.

Roberts said: “I thought we kept our own. We moved the ball around well and created a couple of opportunities.

“I think both teams wanted to give a few other guys a chance in the second half and where we had made the changes, we got a bit scrappy.

“We gave the ball away in midfield cheaply and looked a little bit tired.

“But we take positives from the first half. I thought we conducted ourselves really well. We squeezed them and kept possession really well.”