PETERSFIELD Town will be hoping they don’t hit the headlines when they travel to the New Forest to face Bashley in the Russell Cotes Cup tonight (7.45pm).

The Rams won’t want to be only the second side to lose to The Bash this season in a competitive match.

Cinderford Town are the only team to lose to the lowly Southern League Division 1 South and West outfit after they suffered a 1-0 defeat to them in the FA Trophy at the beginning of October.

Since that rare bright moment in an otherwise dismal season, Bashley have lost 13 matches in a row and out of 26 competitive games so far in this campaign they have lost 25 of them.

In their league campaign, The Bash have only scored seven times in 21 matches but they have conceded 102 goals.

When you pick through this list of poor statistics you can understand why Petersfield Town manager Ian Saunders does not want to see his side suffer the same fate as Cinderford did in a cup competition.

“I said before our win at North Greenford on Saturday that we had a crucial week of matches and that we needed to win all three of them,” he explained.

“I don’t want us to lose to Bashley but just because they have had a poor season doesn’t mean we can go there and just expect to win.

“I am sure it will be another scrappy game as they will be fighting for their lives to enjoy a bit of cup glory so my players will need to be right at the top of their games to ensure we go there and prepare in the right way and do a professional job and come home with the victory.

“This is a game we should be winning but we won’t be taking them lightly. It probably won’t be pretty – the situation and the conditions will see to that – but we must look to get the right result on the night to make sure it is our name which goes alongside Christchurch in the next round.”

Petersfield’s only injury concern from the weekend was Lewis Hyde who is likely to undergo a fitness check before Saunders names his team to check the extent of his hamstring injury.