SWINDON College Old Boys boss Martin Peaple admitted his side need to take a point from this weekend’s local derby with Wootton Bassett if they are to keep their season alive.

The Nationwide side are rooted to the bottom of the Southern Counties North table and are yet to taste victory after gaining promotion from the Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier at the end of the last campaign.

Old Boys now have two home games to play before the Christmas break, starting with Bassett tomorrow, and Peaple knows his side could become detached at the bottom if they don’t stem the tide.

“It’s another big game for us because we had three home games in the run before Christmas and I was hoping we could get something from one or maybe two,” he said. “One’s gone now (39-10 loss to Wallingford) so that makes this next game even more important.

“Bassett have had a couple of wins and are sitting midtable so I’m pretty sure they would feel comfortable of coming and taking the points on Saturday, which is probably fair enough given the way they’ve been playing and the way we’ve been playing.

“However, we are quite capable of taking something from this Saturday, just to keep our season alive really. If we don’t take any points before Christmas now we are going to start to struggle a little.

“We need to stay in touch and at the moment we are just about. A couple of wins for us and a couple of losses for the others could see us drag ourselves out the bottom two.

“To do that, though, we need to take something from these games before Christmas.”

In contrast, Bassett go into the game in confident mood following their 25-15 win over Drifters and coach Alan Low believes his side should have too much for their hosts if they play to their potential.

“We know what’s coming and it’s going to be a tough, important game for us because their performances and results have really picked up a little recently,” he said.

“It’s going to be an interesting local derby, as they always are, and if we nail our performance and get everything right then hopefully the result will go our way.

“All we focus on all season is our performance, our 80 minutes, and nothing will change at all.

“All the players are just talking about the performance and not the fact it’s a local derby for us because we need to get the performance right. If that happens the result should come.”