JASON Bristow wants to make sure that opposition sides “fear” his Basingstoke Town team as they push for a place in the Vanarama Conference South promotion shake-up.

Having claimed an impressive 4-0 win away at leaders Boreham Wood on Saturday, Town sit fourth in the table, six points off top spot with two games in hand.

February offers up a run of winnable fixtures, with Basingstoke playing five games against sides currently outside the top 10, beginning with a home match against Maidenhead United on Saturday (3pm).

Bristow is aware that his side have sometimes struggled against teams lower down the table in the past and admits that the next month will have a big bearing on their title challenge.

“If you look at previous winners of this league, they have always won games like the ones we have coming up,” he said. “We need to make sure that teams come here and fear us by putting in performances and winning games.

“On paper, it’s a really good month, but in the past we have come unstuck in these sort of games. We need to focus on ourselves. If we play the way we know we can, we should be able to have a good month and really put ourselves in contention.”

Town will have to be aware of a Maidenhead United strikeforce that contains two former Dragons and an ex-Premier League marksman.

Maidenhead go into Saturday’s game at The Soccer AM Stadium sitting 16th in the Vanarama Conference South table, having won just one of their last 13 league games, but they will certainly pose a threat in forward areas.

Former Birmingham City and Blackpool striker DJ Campbell, who has 14 Premier League goals to his name, has been a big-name signing for Maidenhead, who also boast former Town forwards David Tarpey and Stefan Brown.

Tarpey, who spent two seasons at Basingstoke early in his career, is their top scorer, having found the net 11 times this season. Brown, who spent the 2012-13 season at Town, is on his way back from injury after impressing at Hungerford last season.

Town manager Jason Bristow, who played alongside Tarpey and brought Brown to the club, is aware of the threats posed by Maidenhead.

“Maidenhead have got some good individuals and they work hard as a team,” he said. “It looks like DJ Campbell will be fit and he will score goals if we give him a chance.

“They are not on a great run at the moment but we need to make sure we come out of the blocks quickly and get on the front foot. They will be hoping to get a few players back from injury, so we may come up against a stronger side than we would have done a couple of weeks ago.

“We cannot take them lightly, but if we focus on ourselves and our own performance then it’s a game we can win.”

Bristow is determined to ensure that his side build on last week’s excellent 4-0 victory away at league leaders Boreham Wood.

They sit fourth in the table and are in with a genuine chance of battling for the title, with 11 of their remaining 15 games against sides currently outside the top 10.

Bristow said: “Everyone else still has to play each other and there are a lot of points up for grabs. We just need to focus on our job and make sure we keep picking up points.

“We need to approach the games in the same way we approached Saturday. Consistency in results in what we need. The pitches are going to get heavy, so it might not be pretty at times, but we need to make sure we find a way to win.

“We will not win every game by three or four goals. You have to grind results out sometimes and it’s important that we show we can do that as well.”

Bristow is hoping that full-back Nathan Smart will recover from a gashed shin in time to feature on Saturday, but he will continue to be without Simon Dunn (hamstring) and Jay Gasson (toe). Jamie Brown is to have an operation on his injured groin today and will be out of action for at least a month.

Visit basingstokegazette.co.uk/sport to follow live text commentary from The Soccer AM Stadium on Saturday