WHEN you come up against a player who once cost Nottingham Forest £500,000 and who has netted 18 league goals in 23 games so far this season, you could be forgiven for being a little cautious.

But Shrivenham boss Pete Horwat insists his resilient side will stand up to the test that Chris Allen and North Leigh pose in the Hellenic League Premier Division tomorrow.

The teams go head-to-head at the Recreation Ground, with Shrivenham playing host to the highest scorers in the division with 87 goals.

Thirty-five-year-old Allen is the man to watch, having made his name in the professional game during spells at Forest, Oxford United, Luton, Cardiff City, Port Vale, Stockport County and Brighton.

But Horwat is relishing taking on the second-placed side, even more so with Shrivvy's form this campaign against the top sides.

"They've been up there for the past three or four years and will be trying to push to finish in the automatic promotion spot," he revealed.

"But we seem to play really well against the top three or four sides and we've got points out of Witney, Almondsbury and Hungerford so far.

"Chris Allen made his name scoring at professional level and now he's doing that for them.

"They play a system that gets the ball out wide and then into the box as soon as possible, but by playing some good football as well.

"They may have scored 87 times, but that doesn't bother us.

"We're becoming hard to score against and we're also liable to get a goal or two or three with our attacking flair and set pieces.

"We've got to respect them as they are a top side, but we've got absolutely nothing to lose as we've given all the best sides a real good game this season."

Highworth Town travel to Wantage Town tomorrow, but boss Dave Webb is predicting a much tougher game than when the pair faced each other earlier in the season.

Webb's side were comfortable 4-2 winners at the Elms in September, but the manager knows his troops are in for a much tougher examination this time round.

Wantage have lost just three times since the turn of the year, and Webb admitted: "They've turned the corner with recent results and have done very well in the last few weeks.

"I know Rich Bourne (Wantage's manager) well. He's a good young manager with some good players there and it was only going to be a matter of time before things improved.

"The game earlier in the season we won, but they were just on a poor run of form.

"It will be nothing like that this time, and if we don't approach it in the right way then we'll get beaten."

Highworth have doubts over Gareth Davies and Phil Corcoran, but Ian Gill, Mitch Wyatt, Tony Joyce, Andy Minturn and Danny Hilder all return to the squad.