Manager Roger Herridge says his Binfield players will be under no pressure when they face two of the Hellenic League title-chasing sides in the next week, writes Dave Wright.

The Moles take on current leaders Highworth on Saturday (3pm ko) followed by local rivals Bracknell on Monday evening (7.45pm ko), both games at Hill Farm Lane.

They have been in good form of late, establishing themselves in sixth place in the table, but suffered a 3-2 home defeat at the hands of Brimscombe & Thrupp last weekend with the visitors’ later winner coming from a hotly-disputed penalty.

“We are really looking forward to taking on these two top sides. They should be two cracking games,” said Herridge.

“We can’t win the league ourselves, so there is no real pressure on us, but I know my boys will be going all out to win.

“For that to happen, they will need to be at the top of their game and we will need Lady Luck to shine down on us if we are to cause a shock or two.”

She certainly didn’t do that last Saturday when the Moles lost out in controversial circumstances.

With the scores level at 2-2 and less than five minutes remaining, they gave away a soft free-kick which was pumped into their area and when a Brimscombe player turned it back towards goal the ball struck Joe Gritt on his hand to concede a penalty which was dispatched into the net by Ashley Caldwell, his second of the game.

“The ball struck Gritty’s hand from point-blank range and he knew nothing about it,” argued Herridge. “It was a very dubious penalty and it cost us, which was very disappointing.

“We didn’t deserve to lose; a draw would have been a fair result.”

The Moles started the game well and took a deserved lead in the sixth minute through Ian Davies, his 26th Hellenic League goal of the season.

But 10 minutes later the visitors equalised through Chris Greenough and took the lead with a Caldwell penalty in first-half stoppage time.

Binfield worked hard to get back into the game, with Jeff Brown equalising with 20 minutes remaining.

Carlo Santoro almost gave Binfield the lead before that penalty decision went against Gritt shortly after he had come off the bench.

Herridge is concerned about the the number of goals his side are conceding, saying: “We are leaking too many and this is a worry going into a tough run of games.

“We will certainly have to tighten up against big scoring sides like Highworth and Bracknell.”