BASINGSTOKE Town manager Jason Bristow says that his side have a “massive opportunity” to win promotion from the Vanarama Conference South.

Tuesday night’s impressive 3-0 win at Maidenhead United left Town third in the table, just four points off top spot, with 12 games remaining. Many people expected Basingstoke’s excellent early-season form to be a flash in the pan, but Bristow’s men have proved them wrong and go into the final third of the season with a genuine chance of winning the title.

“It’s a massive opportunity for us, as good as we have had in all my time involved with the club,” Bristow said. “Five or six teams will feel the same way, but we are in a fantastic position and if we can maintain our form then we have every chance of being in there right until the end.

“It’s a cliché, but we have to take it game by game. It’s so tight this season that there are very few teams with nothing left to play for. Every game will be a challenge and the other teams near the top are strengthening, but we have a really close-knit squad.”

Next up for Town is a home game against struggling Bishop’s Stortford, a team who have only won one of their last eight league games. It’s the first of three home games in a row for Basingstoke, who have sometimes found it hard to break sides down at The Soccer AM Stadium, and Bristow believes that adaptability is the key to winning matches at home.

“Some teams will come to our place and make themselves hard to break down, while others will press really hard to stop us playing,” he said. “Over the last four or five weeks, we have shown that we are capable of adapting our game and have been able to come to terms with both approaches in most games, which shows the character we have.

“We have to dictate the tempo on Saturday. If we play at the intensity we know we can, then there’s every chance we will get all three points, but if we allow them to slow us down and dictate the pace of the game then we will have problems.”

Town will be without Jamie Brown (groin), but Manny Williams (ankle) is expected to be fit after being rested as a precaution on Tuesday, while Jay Gasson is over his broken toe but is lacking match-fitness.