BRENTWOOD Town visit an unpredictable Heybridge Swifts team today with manager Steve Witherspoon expecting anything but an early Christmas present from their Essex rivals.
Last Saturday The Blues thrashed Soham Town Rangers 6-3, a team that beat Swifts the previous Saturday 8-2.
But Witherspoon is refusing to look too much into those results, especially as Swifts bounced back last Saturday with a 6-0 win against Ilford and are currently fourth in the division.
"I think that was a one off," he said on Swifts results against Soham.
"If you saw the firepower of Soham you can see that if Swifts weren't quite on it, how they can put a few goals on you.
"I wouldn't see anything in that result to make me think anything other than Heybridge Swifts will be a tough nut to crack, they're in the top four.
"It's a lovely surface down there and we go down feeling confident. If we nick a win then lovely."
Saturday's thumping win moved Town up to 14th in the league with several games in hand on their rivals.
And Witherspoon lists it as one of his team's best performances of the season so far, especially pleasing as he changed from a traditional 4-4-2 to a diamond shape in midfield.
"It was a fantastic performance and we kept the ball really well," he said.
"It was a young side and we were full of energy. It was one of our best performances of the season for sure.
"I made some big calls and we left some people out and I suppose that's my job to make those calls. It worked out really well – it was a great advert for non-league football."
The manager reserved special praise for striker Alex Read who helped himself to four goals at the weekend to keep up his fine form.
"He's on fire," he said. "I've whinged in the past that we haven't had a goalscorer and now we have.
"It's a pleasing set-up to be around at the moment."
Town have only lost one of their last ten games in all competitions but the cold snap left them without a game for more than two weeks and Witherspoon admits the lack of fitness was a concern and meant he utilised some of the younger players in his squad.
"It's alright having nearly four or five days but once you start getting past seven or eight days then you start losing fitness and all sorts of cardio," he said.
"Everyone came in when it was raining and worked hard but I was concerned, that's another reason why I went for the younger boys. I thought they'd have the legs."
