Gavin Macpherson insists his players will not be fazed by the visit of heavyweights Torquay United tomorrow despite having taken just one point out of the last 12.

Town will be without at least three first teamers in Tosh Gallimore (ankle), Mickey Parcell (still recovering) and Ruaridh Donaldson (suspended) but will need to raise their game against the Gulls whose travelling fans are likely to swell the gate to beyond four figures and make for a fabulous atmosphere.

Torquay are followed by the visit of another high flier in Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday and although the subsequent two games against fellow strugglers Eastbourne and Hampton and Richmond are potentially more crucial, we have reached the point where we simply cannot allow any of our rivals near the bottom to pull away.

“This is what we signed up for coming into the league, to be playing teams like Torquay and Dorking,” said Gav bullishly. “The magnitude of the two games can’t be understated. To some we are ‘little old Enfield’ , which is understandable, but we’re at home and I go into every game hoping to win it. At the very least I expect us to run hard, compete and give full throttle.”

Torquay will be without two key trump cards in suspended strikers Louis Dennis and Jordan Young, who have scored no fewer than 26 goals between them. But they still have plenty of forward options including last season’s leading scorer Cody Cooke and Joe Hatch who has just signed from Plymouth Argyle on a one-month loan deal.

“I doubt (Torquay manager) Paul (Wooton) will be that worried given who he can bring in,” said Gav. “Paul’s got an excellent record against me unfortunately and generally the better teams end up near the top. But these are the games you look forward to because on any given day anyone can beat anyone in this division.”

 Gav revealed that Cian Dillon could be back after injury for either Dorking or Eastbourne depending on parent club QPR’s requirements. And, crucially, there are hopes of trying to extend Cian’s loan deal which runs out at the end of January.

At the time of writing Town were in advanced negotiations to  sign an established new forward as revealed at last night’s AGM. As for Ruben Bartlett-Antwi, who came off the bench to make his debut at Maidenhead last weekend, Gav was at pains to take the pressure off the 21-year-old striker .

“Centre-forwards are the hardest commodity at our level to bring in and as I’ve said already, Ruben is by no means the finished article at Step 2. What he does have are certain attributes and a willingness to learn. But he has to be here for the longer run. If he suddenly decides he wants to play Step 2 every week, he’s not quite there for that. We’ve had that conversation and I believe he is someone can be effective and is certainly in my toolkit of options.”

AW