Cirencester Town will be in an upbeat mood when they make the short trip west to take on county rivals Slimbridge on Saturday.

John Brough’s men have opened up a five-point lead at the top of Division One South of the Southern League on the back of a hugely impressive 12-game unbeaten run, a run that has included wins over their two main rivals Frome Town and AFC Totton.

“We’ve had a really good December and January,” said manager Brough, who has been in charge for just over two years. “We’ve played some really tough teams and managed to come out on top.

“But there’s still a long way to go, there are a lot of points to play for.”

Indeed there are with Cirencester still having 11 games to play, while Frome and third-placed Totton, who are two points adrift of Frome, both have 12 matches remaining.

But the momentum is clearly with Cirencester even though Brough, who played over 200 Football League games back in the day, is certainly not getting carried away.

“I like winning and I like being top of the league,” he said. “But things can change very quickly. Yes, we’re five points clear but Frome have got a game in hand and it wasn’t so long ago that they were seven or eight points ahead of us.

“We’ve turned it around with our great run but a couple of defeats could change all that.”

Defeats have been pretty rare this season, of course, with Cirencester having lost only two of their 25 league games, and there is certainly no shortage of experience in their squad as they look to maintain their great form.

“If you look through our team I would say that half of them have either won this league or won promotion from it,” said Brough. “More than half of them have played at the higher level.

“We’ve got plenty of experienced players with a few younger legs. They know how to win, even if we’re not playing well they know how to win and that’s always a good sign.”

Brough is spot on, of course, and the 49-year-old is certainly playing his part too. He was at Cinderford Town on Tuesday to watch them play Slimbridge – Cirencester travel to Cinderford on 26^th February – ahead of Saturday’s game, and although both are nearer the bottom than the top he knows there are no easy games in this division.

The same will be true when bottom-of-the-table Barnstaple Town head for Cirencester on Saturday week, but while Brough is aware of the potential pitfalls – and Slimbridge will be encouraged by their 2-1 win at Cinderford this week – it’s fair to say that the club’s supporters will be hoping for nine points from the three games to take them into the final couple of months of the season in pole position.

That would set them up for a title push over the last eight games and while they are well placed at the moment, Brough says he hasn’t been given a timeline by chairman Steve Abbley to get them out of the division.

“There’s never been a target,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to win promotion but there are a lot of strong teams in the division.”

One of those teams – Winchester Town – were beaten 4-2 by Cirencester at the Corinium last Saturday when two of Brough’s more recent signings, Zack Kotwica and Ben Whitehead, were on the scoresheet.

Only goalkeeper Alex Harris has played every league game for Cirencester this season and Brough said: “I’ve told all the players that they’ve got a role to play. We’ve been pretty lucky because the back four have been pretty solid, we’ve got options in midfield and we’ve rotated our forwards to keep them fresh.”