Achilles boss Lee Osborn knows his in-form side are in the driving seat to win the SIL Senior title this season.

The current league-leaders sit five points clear at the top of the SIL as things stand and have been in consistently impressive form this season, accumulating 31 points out of a possible 39.

They face an out-of-sorts Coplestonians side this weekend who have won just one league game in their last eight.

And although Osborn accepts that there is still a long way to go this season, he is confident his side can push on and win the SIL after finishing runners-up to Ipswich Valley Rangers last campaign.

“We’re in the driving seat,” said the Achilles boss.

“We’ve got the points in the bag already, IVR have been struggling of late and Grundisburgh have picked up a few draws so they’re playing catch-up a little bit.

“We’ve got a fantastic squad with 17 or 18 top-class players who could all play week-in week-out and winning the league is definitely our aim.”

One team’s progress that is concerning Osborn however is Capel Plough.

Winning eight of 11 in the league, Capel have exceeded expectations so far this season and loiter just behind Achilles with two games in hand.

With Capel visiting Cranes this weekend, Osborn will be hoping for a favour from an old friend.

“Iain Radnor (Cranes’ manager) and I work at the same carpentry business so I’ll be expecting a favour of him this weekend,” joked Osborn.

“Me and Radders have some great banter working together and being managers in the same league.

“None more so than the other week when we beat them 5-4.

“It was an entertaining game to say the least and we had more than a laugh at the building site on Monday but I don’t think either of us were laughing during the game – I certainly wasn’t, I felt like I had about six heart-attacks.”

With Osborn, commonly known as ‘Ossie’ on the non-league scene, away for the weekend, assistant Gary Bartlett is set to step up into the first-team manager shoes and Osborn is fully confident the ex-Coplestonians boss can lead his side to victory.

He said: “With Cops a side he used to manage, Gary will be geeing up the players even more.

“The players know what I think about complacency and I’m sure none of them will dare think that all they’ve got to do is turn up on Saturday to win.”