PORTLAND United boss Brendon King is wary of an unpredictable Bemerton Heath Harlequins and the Salisbury side’s strong strike force ahead of their Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division clash tomorrow (3pm).

Bemerton enjoyed an excellent December, beating Alresford 4-1, Lymington 5-0 and Andover New Street 4-0 but lost their previous game 5-0 to Fareham at home.

Despite what King describes as “up and down” form, the Blues’ boss has called for his troops to “work hard” as they seek to extend their unbeaten run to 10 games.

He told Echosport: “They are a little bit up and down but the main thing is you’re going to their patch and they’ve got a couple of good players going forward who score goals and are dangerous.

“You normally get a good surface up there so that’ll be good for us. We’ve got to respect the fact that sometimes you go away from home and you’ve got no right to win games. You’ve got to battle and roll your sleeves up, work hard – harder than the other team, which gives you a chance of winning games.”

He added: “You’re looking back on (the last nine games) and it’s been good. We played well in certain games and others we haven’t but we got wins out of it.

“One thing it does show is we’ve got good character and a never-say-never attitude, which is a good trait to have.”

The second-placed Blues could welcome back Ed Bastick and Shaun Bessant after the duo returned for the reserves last week. Tom Richardson returns after unavailability.