STEVE Hollick expects AFC Portchester to “come straight at us” when he leads his AFC Totton troops to Wicor Rec on Saturday in the FA Cup preliminary round.

Hollick is friends with Portchester’s assistant/coach Steve Johnson, having had him as a tutor for his UEFA B Licence, and knows full well he will be out to exploit the Stags’ early vulnerability in matches.

For three games running Totton have failed to recover after disastrously conceding two early goals in successive Southern One South & West fixtures against Shortwood, Larkhall and Didcot.

As a result of that frailty, they have yet to register their first league win and could badly do with a pick-me-up against Graham Rix’s Portchester outfit who sit fifth in the Sydenhams Premier.

Hollick said: “I’ve got a lot time for Portchester, Graham Rix and Steve Johnson.

“Portchester like to get the ball down and play and they’ve got some good lads there who are playing below the standard they should be. There’s a few I’d like to see in the Southern League, but they’ve chosen to play in the Wessex and that's just the way it is.

“The FA Cup will be a nice break for us from the league and allow us to regroup a bit. Hopefully it will kick-start the season for us.

“But I’m sure Steve and Rixy will have been monitoring us and they’ll come straight at us.

“We’ve been working on the training ground to resolve those issues (of conceding early) and, if we can cut of the individual errors, we should be fine.”

The Stags will have a more experienced backline available with Marc Diaper, James Roden and Luke Dempsey all getting over their injury troubles.

Midfielder Chris Manning is back available, while Mike Gosney (back) and Mark Lilley (ankle) face fitness tests.

A September 12 trip to Bristol Manor Farm or Bitton awaits Saturday's victors.