STEVE Riley hopes the new year will herald a new lease of life for AFC Totton loanee Mike Gosney.

The gifted former Stags winger has returned to the Testwood Stadium fold on a month’s loan from Gosport Borough and made his debut in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Sholing.

He is still a little rusty having had only limited opportunities this season, other than a loan spell with Poole Town, but Totton boss Riley hopes it will only be a matter of time before his quality shines through.

“Gos needs a few games to get match fit but, hopefully, he can add that bit of quality and start scoring and making goals for us – beginning at home to Fleet,” said the boss.

“Gos is a one-off. They broke the mould when they made him and, on his day, he’s a joy to watch.

“He’s a match-winner and I hope he can do the business for us.

“I can’t speak for (Gosport boss) Alex Pike on why Gos has not been in their side, but Gosport are going really well and it happens sometimes.

“Gos is the type of lad who needs to be playing regularly to get his confidence up. He just wants to get the buzz back and get wins under his belt.

“Hopefully we can do that for him and, at the same time, I’m sure our lads will benefit from him being here.

“Gos is a fans’ favourite, he’s good to have around the club and at training and the players can hopefully thrive off that.

“(Striker/wideman) Nathaniel Sherborne’s pleased to have him back. They’re good friends, but I don’t think they’ve played together for some time because Sherbs was injured when Gos was last here.”

Totton expect to have tenacious midfielder Liam Gilbert back from an ankle injury for today’s 15th-versus-18th showdown in the Southern One South & West.

Visitors Fleet, managed by former Stag Craig Davis, have had some decent results of late, beating Sholing 1-0 after very nearly upsetting league leaders Merthyr Town.

“It’s going to be a tough local derby, but I look forward to seeing Craig. He’s ex-Totton and I had him at Bashley when we won the league. We’ve got a lot of mutual respect,” said Riley.

“Hopefully we can bounce back from the Sholing defeat and go on a bit of a run. We need to be more clinical. We created chances at Sholing, but just couldn’t hit the net.”

Totton’s busy schedule continues away at third-placed Stratford on Saturday before they return to home soil to face fourth-placed Didcot on Tuesday (January 6).