PETERSFIELD Town are hoping they will prove to be a surprise package when they travel to high-flying Royston Town tomorrow.

The Rams face one of their longest away trips of the season but manager Ian Saunders is hoping his players will be able to spring a surprise on their travels.

Royston soundly beat Petersfield 4-0 at Love Lane in September and it is one of only a handful of games so far this season when the Rams have looked out of their depth at the Southern League level of football.

However, Saunders believes his squad has vastly improved since their previous encounter with Royston and that they will give them a tougher test this time around.

He said: “Royston are one of the best sides we have come up against so far this season – they really took us apart in the previous game.

“We couldn’t get anything working on the day. They snuffed out our attacking threat completely and where we are usually very strong in defence, they just carved through us throughout the match.

“We were lucky it was only four in the end. It could have been a lot worse and it was one of only a few days this season where we have felt we have come up against a side or a performance that we couldn’t live with.

“A lot has changed at Petersfield since that match though and I think we have become a much more robust unit since then. We are much more difficult to beat in recent times and we possess an attacking threat now as a team where we always look like scoring.

“The area we need to improve in is conceding goals – sometimes we do this too easily and if we can tighten up on this part of our game I am sure we will be in for a strong second half of the season.

“After our last encounter, I’m sure Royston will look back on that game and think they can beat us again but perhaps the way we have improved will surprise them and we can come home with some more points on the board.”

Saunders has pretty much a full strength squad to choose from. There are no real injury problems in the Rams’ camp as they have only played one game since Boxing Day.