By Joe Harbert

Ashford United captain Sam Mott says the team are relishing Saturday’s challenge against leaders Hastings at Homelands, adding they have nothing to fear going into the game.

The Sussex side sit top of Isthmian South East on 35 points and remain unbeaten in the league following their 1-0 win at Sittingbourne on Tuesday night.

They have also only conceded eight goals, although Mott admits his team have every intention of ending the visitors’ recent momentum.

“It’s a big game,” the 31-year-old admitted. “But if you want to be up there challenging for promotion you’ve got to enjoy playing against these teams and thrive in it.

“Obviously if Hastings go one in front they’ll be confident they can keep a clean sheet because they’ve kept so many previously, and you can only applaud the amount of goals they’ve let in – that is their strength and they are going to play to it.

“But I don’t see why we can’t beat them and I go into it full of confidence like I always do, believing in the boys that we can get a result.

“I also know that I haven’t kept enough clean sheets this season, so there’s no better time to start than against the league leaders.”

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Despite Tommy Warrilow’s side dropping to fifth in the table after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Haywards Heath, his team did emerge victorious the last time the two sides met in the league.

A 3-2 win at Pilot Field in April sent Ashford through to last season’s play-off final at the expense of Chris Agutter’s men, however United’s skipper says avenging the defeat won’t be a big factor for their opponents.

“I don’t think they’ll be out for revenge as such.

“They’ll want to win and they will want to stay top so I think that’s there motivation more than events from last year,” Mott added.

“Maybe their fans rather than the actual players will be worrying more about that.”

He added: “I do think if they’re still top come the middle of January you’ll have to say they’re favourites for promotion, but I still have every confidence we can catch them with lots of games left.

“We don’t fear any team in the league and most of our games follow the same pattern of us dominating possession-wise.

“We’re always a threat when we go forward – it’s just at the back where we need to tighten up a bit more.”

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