CHIPPENHAM TOWN boss Mark Collier has claimed Saturday’s National League South game against basement side Weston-super-Mare could be a potential banana skin for his team, writes JONATHAN LEIGHFIELD.

Weston are currently sit bottom of the league with eight points, but in the last month have drawn against ex-Football League side Torquay as well as picking up their first league win against Hungerford Town.

And last Saturday, they beat FA Cup heroes Slough Town 3-2 in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

Collier is impressed with the Somerset outfit and has tipped them to avoid relegation, but he knows his players must not take anything for granted if they are to come away with the points on Saturday.

He said: “They’re bottom of the league, but a very dangerous opponent. They’ve got an inventive manager and I’ve got a lot of time for the way they play.

“They’ve made some shrewd signings in the last month, so I don’t expect Western-super-Mare to be relegated. I know they’re quite a long way behind, but I really don’t see them going down.

“It’s a big banana skin because everyone would expect us, with our home record, to win the game, but we’ll show them respect. We’ll need to make sure that we’re better than we have been in the two cup games.

“They play in a different way to most sides, they pass the ball for fun, they wait for a press and try and play through that, so I expect it to be a difficult game.

“If people are turning up and thinking ‘oh, it’s eighth versus bottom, it’s going to be a rout’ then forget that, because we’re in for a tough game on Saturday.

“We’re used to difficult games, it’s nothing that we fear, but I just want my players to be aware that this won’t be a game we can expect to just turn up and roll them over."

Chippenham are currently one point off the play-off places and Collier is optimistic, heading into the festive period, that his players can bring some Christmas cheer to their supporters.

He said: “We’re in a good place in the league, we’ve got a busy period coming up, but it should be a good time to be a Chippenham supporter.

“We’re slowly establishing ourselves in the National South and we’ve still got work to do, we’re all aware of that but we’re all working hard towards our aim.

“We’re eighth in the division going into December and we could go into Christmas in the play-offs so that’s our objective.”