DORSET SENIOR LEAGUE

ALL three sides are on the road tomorrow ahead of the Christmas break.

Upwey & Broadwey and Portland United Reserves travel to Witchampton and Piddletrenthide respectively, while league leaders Chickerell United go to basement boys Okeford (all 2pm).

Last weekend, the Chickens exited the Dorset Senior Trophy after a shock defeat at Sturm-inster Newton and boss Steve Coward is expecting a response.

He said: “We need to bounce back and ensure we go into the New Year still at the top of the table.

“The result at Sturminster showed that if you do not approach games in the right frame of mind, you can easily get punished, and hopefully the lads have taken that on board now and will be out to make amends.”

Dan Welch and Warren White will both return to action this weekend and with Nick Ether-ington on his way back too, the Chickens will no doubt be confident of continuing their sparkling league form, which has seen them lose just one of their 11 games.

Upwey are also in the running at the top of the table where they sit just three points adrift of Chickerell in fourth spot.

The Redlands outfit have picked up 20 points from a possible 24 since the start of October following two defeats in three at the start of the campaign.

Witchampton is a tough place to go but Steve Reynolds is hoping his side’s run can continue.

The Upwey boss said: “We have also drawn Witchampton at home in the quarter-finals of the Dorset Senior Trophy, so both sides will probably be sick of each other over the next few weeks.

“We came through the leagues with them and seemed to beat them at every level but, for some reason in this league, we have struggled at their place and hopefully we can put that right tomorrow.”

Finally, Portland have been going through a sticky spell of late, following three straight defeats in all competitions.

They will certainly have to up their game at Piddletrenthide who won their last game at Okeford 7-0.

Blues’ player-boss Chris Hicks said: “Something has got to change tomorrow because just recently our performances have not been good enough.

“Piddletrenthide are going to be massively up for it after their win last weekend, so we are going to need to buck up our ideas again and put in a big display.”