Winchester City manager Paul Masters has hailed his side’s “great response” after bouncing back from two defeats to win three games on the trot ahead of tonight’s top of the table clash with second placed Moneyfields.

The Citizens had slumped to back-to-back defeats at the beginning of the month – a shock loss to previously winless Totton & Eling followed by another loss against Whitchurch.

But since then have blasted 16 goals in three games, including a 6-0 win over Bemerton and a 5-2 success over Folland Sports in the league as well as a 5-1 victory over Tadley in the North Hants Cup.

Winchester are now just six points off the Portsmouth outfit with two games in hand as they prepare to lock horns at the Denplan City Ground tonight (7.45pm) in what promises to be a spicy encounter.

Masters insists his side can “definitely” catch the Moneymen, who put two straight losses behind them with a 1-0 win over Folland last Saturday.

“They’re not on the best of runs either,” said Masters.

“It’s all about us. If we can carry on winning then we’ll see where we end up.”

Masters just wants his side to get their heads down and push-on after bouncing back from those defeats.

“We were very disappointed with those two games,” he said.

“We’ve had a great response from the boys.

“We just need to push on from there.”

Masters expects there to be a lot of movement in the Wessex Premier as teams battle out for top positions.

But he doesn’t expect any change at the summit, with Petersfield holding a six point lead.

So it’s all about the battle for the runners-up place.

“The top sides are playing each other and there will be a lot of changes,” he said.

“We just want to finish as high as possible.

“It’s Petersfield’s league to give away. I can’t see them losing three games and us winning every single game.

“It makes it very difficult but we’ll keep trying.”

Tonight’s match will pitch two of the league’s top strike partnerships against each other.

Moneys’ 65-goal pairing Alfie Rutherford and Steve Hutchings come up against City’s 63-goal pairing of Warren Bentley and Zach Glasspool. And it will be made even more interesting by the fact that Miles Rutherford’s outfit have the tightest defence in the division, having conceded just 29 goals.

City are hoping for a bumper crowd for the occasion and are offering special admission of £5 adults and free for concessions and under-16s.