DIVISION THREE PREVIEW: Leaders look to cement another victory in Westbury (From Wiltshire Times)

Div Three

DIVISION THREE PREVIEW: Leaders look to cement another victory in Westbury

2:56pm Thursday 4th February 2010

BRITISH Lion will look to maintain their five-point advantage over the chasing pack led by FC Jager when they visit the Cement Works, Westbury, for their return match with Steve Martin’s Blue Circle, who they beat 5-1 back in October.

Circle may be down in seventh place but they shouldn’t be written off as they have a reasonably good home record, have recently beaten the much-fancied Crown FC side and have taken points off both North Star B and local rivals Westbury Rangers B this season.

The result is likely to be a lot closer than the first meeting of the teams, but the points are likely to go the way of Danny Thompson’s side for a second time.

FC Jager v White Horse FC

FC JAGER, who are currently in second place, hope to play their first home game since the first week of November last year when they meet White Horse at The Beeches, Shaw. Jager ran out comfortable winners in their last league game, when they beat Southwick Wanderers 6-1, and go into the contest on the back of a 3-1 victory over First Division Bremhill View Social Club in the WG Parr Trophy.

Manager Barry Holloway is becoming increasingly frustrated with the amount of games that are being cancelled at his home pitch and has looked to switch venues wherever possible. If the game goes ahead, Jager will have their usual squad available and their only casualty as things stand is Emilio Menghini who has flu.

North Star B v Pack Horse Rangers

HAVING won the Division Four title in style last season, North Star B made a sluggish start to their Third Division campaign.

At one stage it looked as if promotion may have come too quick for Liam Westland’s side, but it wasn’t long before the Calne men were back to their best.

And they will go into their game against Pack Horse Rangers bidding for a seventh straight win.

When the teams met in October, North Star won 5-3 and they will begin the match at Beaversbrook Sport’s Facility as red-hot favourites to claim their eighth win in just 10 games.

But Pack Horse are looking for a third straight two-pointer after recent wins against basement side Eastlands who they beat 6-0.

That result might not impress their opponents but following it up with a 6-3 victory over Steeple Ashton Rangers will have got their attention and the Star will realise that their guests are not just going to roll over.

Southwick Wanderers v Steeple Ashton Rangers

SOUTHWICK Wanderers and Steeple Ashton Rangers are scheduled to play each other twice this month, so both will be hoping to draw first blood on Sunday.

Ashton may have missed out a game last weekend but they could still be smarting from their 6-3 defeat against Pack Horse Rangers a fortnight ago and will be well aware that unless they want their promotion hope to suffer another blow they need to win this game.

Ashton may be favourites to beat Wanderers, but Ollie Turner’s side shouldn’t be ignored as they took a point of their guests last term courtesy of a 2-2 draw and narrowly lost their other game 3-2.

The home team have a reasonable chance to get something from a game most people expect them to lose to hand Ashton their ninth win of the season.

The Crown FC V Eastlands FC

BASEMENT side Eastlands will fear the worst when they travel to Lavington for their match against The Crown FC.

Crown may be just four places above Adam Davey’s side in the table, but have plenty of games in hand on the sides above them so Tom Perkins' Devizes-based men shouldn’t have any worries of getting dragged into a relegation dogfight.

If they could put a winning run together then they could catapult themselves into a promotion-winning position.

This will be the first time the sides have ever met and it will take a miracle for Eastlands to come out on top.

Although they have shown a massive improvement on last season's performances it’s starting to look as if they will suffer relegation to Division Four.

Their opponents are starting to show what they really can do and, having beaten leaders British Lion 4-0 in their previous game, this should be a stroll in the park for them.

Trowbridge Town Supporters Club v Corsham United

OLD adversaries Trowbridge Town Supporters Club and Corsham United are scheduled to lock horns with each other at the supporters’ club base in Bratton this weekend.

And the hosts' manager Kevin Williams will be hoping that it will be third time lucky after being forced to postpone recent home fixtures against Southwick Wanderers and Eastlands due to a waterlogged and frozen pitch respectfully.

Honours were shared last term, with the supporters’ club winning the corresponding fixture 3-2, before losing out in the reverse match when they were beaten 2-0.

But Corsham have already put down a marker this season and Joe Pritchard will be confident that his team can repeat the scoreline of late December, when they beat their hosts 5-2 thanks to a Andy Wilkins hat-trick and a goal apiece from Dan Purser and Chris Casey.

With both teams in the bottom four this is a must-win game for each of them and although the supporters’ club lost the previous battle, they are tipped to take the points.