Home fortress is hope for Market Drayton

The hosts were undefeated on their home turf last season and, having opened this campaign with back-to-back away games, have not had the chance to build on that record.

But player-manger Nick Reed is hoping that a similar run of form this season, coupled with more consistency against teams in the lower half of the table, can form the basis for a successful promotion push.

“We are strong at home and we have enjoyed playing there so we want to continue that run, but we definitely also need to improve against the weaker teams in the league,” he said.

“Against top-half sides last season we did very well but we had slip-ups against the poorer sides.

“But we know what we did wrong last season and we have shown that we have taken that on board with the results we have had at the start of this season.”

Drayton currently sit third in the table having won their opening games at Leamington and Wednesbury 6-1 and 4-0 respectively.

Newly-promoted Whitchurch are still looking for their first win having drawn 3-3 with Droitwich before losing 5-1 at Bloxwich.

Whitchurch, who lost last season’s captain Andy Magee for the whole of this campaign with a knee injury last month, will also be without goalkeeper Paul Leigh and centre-back Alex Fry (both unavailable).

But captain Lee Davies said his side must use their opponents’ home form as motivation this weekend.

“We have to turn it into a positive,” he said. “We know it is going to be extremely tough but we will give it our best shot,” he said.

In West Midlands Two, table-toppers Ludlow will go head-to-head with second-placed Pershore in a battle of undefeated teams.

Oswestry will travel to Rugeley aiming to notch their second league win in four games, as will Newtown in their trip to Aston University.

Ludlow will go into their game on the back of an 8-1 away win over Rugeley while Oswestry will be aiming to bounce back after a 3-2 defeat against Newtown.