HIGHWORTH Town assistant manager Kev Moloney is adamant that his team need to return to winning ways on Wednesday night to avoid slipping out of the Hellenic League Premier Division title race.

The Worthians suffered late heartbreak as they slipped to their third straight defeat to top-of-the-table rivals on Saturday, with Highworth going down 1-0 at Kidlington courtesy of an injury-time goal.

That defeat follows up losses to Thatcham Town and Flackwell Heath, and Moloney says that whilst winning games against teams in the lower half of the table is ultimately more key to Highworth’s fortunes, having nothing to show from their last three outings leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

“Winning games against the teams around you isn’t the most important thing. It’s the matches against those sides lower in the table that are important,” said Moloney.

“But it’s still frustrating to not get anything from any of those three games.

“We didn’t deserve what happened against Kidlington. The goal was in the 94th minute and from the way we’d played, a draw would have probably been a fair result.

“We need to try and bounce back on Wednesday. We need three points from that game because we need to make sure that we don’t get too far behind the teams at the top.

“Confidence has taken a bit of a battering but myself and Fish (John Fisher, manager) have faith in this squad.

“We’ll also have a full squad on Wednesday, so that should help us too.”

Midfielder Richie Saunders and Toby Clarke return to the Highworth squad for Wednesday’s trip to Brackley Town Saints but manager John Fisher doesn’t return from holiday in time to lead his side.