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SWPL Premier Division

Penzance v Saltash Utd

Saturay 20 February

Good afternoon everyone and a warm welcome to Penlee Park for this SWPL Premier Division fixture versus Saltash United, the first time the two clubs have played each other since our last meeting in the old South Western League.

We hope that the party who have travelled down from Saltash and Plymouth have had an enjoyable trip by train this morning and wish you all a problem free return journey later this evening.

The Ashes will be the first to admit that they have perhaps to flattered to deceive so far this season, but Kevin Hendy's Saltash side have a number of quality players, and also come into today's game with renewed confidence and optimism after earning a morale-boosting 3-2 home win over Wadebridge on Tuesday night.

Saltash also find themselves in a similar situation to last Saturday's visitors to Penlee Park, Witheridge, in that although currently occupying a mid-table position, they do have games in hand on many of the sides above them which if they were to win could easily propel them rapidly up the table.

Witheridge of course, proved to be extremely tough opposition, particulary as we were again hampered by having several key players missing for various reasons.

Hopefully we will have a stronger squad at our disposal today - I'm sure all supporters will welcome the return of our three county youth players, along with Josh Kemp, who is back from suspension. However, at the time of writing, there are still doubts over the fitness of Ryan Bushby (back) and James Miller (quad muscle), while Jonny Ludlam will soon be starting his second suspension this year, following his recent three-match ban and subsequent sending-off at St Blazey.

As pointed out in last week's programme, these next few weeks are massive for us, if we are to maintain a strong challenge in and amongst the top six. We have another huge home game against the champions, Bodmin Town next Saturday, when we will be looking to make amends for our heaviest defeat of the season following our 5-0 trouncing at Priory Park back in October. We then start our March fixtures with a local derby down at Falmouth Town on Tuesday 2 March and what is always a difficult trip, to a new-look Langsford Park, Tavistock four days later.

If we can come through that batch of tough games with a good collection of points, then we will have another excellent opportunity to keep ourselves in contention, with five consecutive home games coming up in March and early April against Clyst Rovers, Launceston, Tavistock, Liskeard and Torpoint, by which time, with the exception of Plymouth Parkway, we we will have played all of the current top 10 sides both home and away.

Black & White