ALAN Low admits his side’s position in the table still represents a quality return from the first half of the season, even though he reckons Royal Wootton Bassett could be going even better.

Third will play fourth in South West One East as Newbury Blues arrive at Ballards Ash tomorrow, with Low’s men having slipped 12 points behind their rivals after a run of three straight league defeats.

The head coach has attributed much of that mini-slump to an injury list which is showing promising signs of clearing up and insists the division new boys should still hold their heads high when it comes to assessing the first three months of the campaign.

“The frustrating bit for us is that we’ve had such a good start to the year,’’ said Low, whose side won seven of their first 10 matches.

“If you look at the games we’ve lost in recent weeks, they have been against opponents who are lower down the league table.

“We’ve competed well against the teams at the top, but a few injuries have turned into 13 or 14, and not many of them have been just niggles either.’’

Low hopes to have Tim Gallimore back in the fray to boost the back line against the Blues, providing he gets the okay to play after suffering a ruptured bicep last month, with other injury problems hopefully on the road to clearing up.

Low added: “We knew where we could be if we were hit by injuries, but hopefully we’re looking at getting a few people back into it now and we can attack it again in the new year.

“There is the (Christmas) break after this weekend, but we’ll keep the fitness levels up and go from there again.

“If you had said we would be where we are (in the table) at this stage, I’d have snapped your hand off because we were a team making the step up a level from last season.’’

Swindon are also at home tomorrow, with Maidenhead the visitors, while in Dorset & Wilts One North, Supermarine go to Frome 2nd.