Grays Athletic make their second trip to The Goldstar Ground this season, having secured victory back in September in The FA Trophy, writes Barry Grossmith.

On that occasion it was the tricky midfielder Joao Carlos with two goals who caused the damage in their 3-1 win.

In the league there is little to choose between the visitors on 18 points and Felixstowe three places lower in 10th on 16 points.

A home win would see The Seasiders leapfrog Grays to hover just outside the play offs.

Coaches, players and fans alike will approach this game in confident mood following battling displays on the road at both Heybridge and Barking.

This sentiment was expressed by Ian Watson, joint coach, earlier this week.

”It’s an interesting one on Saturday as we have a score to settle, with Grays having knocked us out of the FA Trophy on our own patch, which was disappointing,” he said.

“We will have more to offer this time around and Grays will have a lot more to deal with than the last game. Our boys will be up for the game for those reasons.”

Everyone at Felixstowe is looking for a steady run in the league now and this view was reflected by Joint Coach Kevin O’Donnell who admitted: “Looking forward to Saturday’s game, the squad have proven of late that they can adapt to whatever is in front of them, this week will be another testing game where we look to break our “inconsistent” tag, the squad worked hard in training this week and are fully focused on collecting 3pts.”

For their part, Grays have strengthened recently by re-signing Kieran Bishop from his short stay at Coggeshall.

Bishop, Golden Boot winner for the Essex side for the last two seasons, is a strong front man who scored in his return debut last weekend at home to Tilbury.

Felixstowe are still waiting for Kye Ruel to return from his achilles problem and are looking for a speedy recovery from new signing Darren Mills, out with a knee injury.

Apart from this, joint bosses O’Donnell and Watson have a strong squad to pick from.

Felixstowe & Walton join boss Ian Watson can be heard on the Non-League Podcast, pictured above, from Archant, which is also available on itunes