MAGPIES’ chief Mark Jermyn has given his players a stark warning ahead of tonight’s home clash with Cirencester Town at the Avenue (7.45pm).

Jermyn is adamant that if any of his squad are already thinking of Saturday’s Boxing Day derby at Weymouth, rather than this evening’s contest, they risk being dropped from the side.

The Magpies are looking to get back to winning ways when they take on the Centurions, having been rocked by a late goal from the penalty spot in their 1-1 draw with Chippenham on Saturday.

Jermyn’s men know they will close the gap to just one point on the Terras going into Saturday’s tussle should they be victorious against Cirencester, who currently sit 18th in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division standings.

Avenue boss Jermyn told Echosport: “What I won’t allow is for people to have one eye on that game (with Weymouth).

“There is none of that in my dressing room and if people do that then I have no qualms about dropping somebody if I don’t think they have given enough in the game before.

“The players know that. They know that I am not the easiest person to work for because I said to them at the start of the game (on Saturday) ‘your best isn’t good enough, I want more’. That’s my mentality and it’s unfortunate for them but they know that.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that we don’t have a lot to change but we still have enough. If it is a case of rotating a player in a different area and taking someone off the bench then we will do it.”

Speaking about Cirencester, he added: “They have a strict, straight-forward game plan which is to play for set-pieces, corners and free-kicks. We just know if we can restrict them on things like corners we can impose ourselves on them.”

Jermyn is hopeful striker Ben Watson is fit enough to be named as a substitute tonight, although the match could be in doubt due to the wet weather.

A pitch inspection is set to take place at 11am this morning.