JASON Bristow says that Basingstoke Town will have to deal with opposition teams raising their performance levels as they battle for promotion from the Vanarama Conference South.

On paper, Bristow’s team have what would appear to be a good run-in, with most of their remaining games against sides in the bottom half of the table.

Town ground out a 3-2 win over visiting Maidenhead United on Saturday and sit fourth in the table, six points behind the leaders, and have games in hand over most of the sides around them.

It’s a great position to be in, but the Basingstoke boss is aware that sides further down the table will need little in the way of motivation when they come up against his team.

Bristow said: “I have seen Maidenhead play a few times and their performance on Saturday was the best I have seen from them. We have put ourselves in a good position and are finding that teams raise their game against us.

“It’s something that we have done well in previous years, getting good results against the top teams, and this year we are on the receiving end.

“Teams know that they will have to be at their best to compete with us, which means that managers do not have to say a lot in the changing room before the game.”

Town have two away games this week – and both of them are against sides currently in the bottom half of the table.

Saturday will see Bristow’s men travel to 14th-placed St Albans (3pm), while they face Maidenhead, who lie 17th, for the second time in 10 days on Tuesday night (7.45pm).

St Albans won 1-0 when the sides met at The Soccer AM Stadium earlier in the season – and Bristow is expecting another hard encounter.

“It might not be pretty and we will have to dig deep if we want to get the win,” he said. “We need to make sure that we start in the right way and take the game to them.

“They are very good on set-pieces and have a good long throw, which they use like a free-kick, so that’s something we will need to be aware of.”

Last weekend, Maidenhead caused Town problems by putting pressure on Town’s defenders when they were in possession, something Bristow will be looking to counter when his side travel to York Road.

“Maidenhead will have gone away on Saturday feeling that they should have got more from the game, so I think they will approach the game in exactly the same way,” the Basingstoke manager added. “They’ll be in our faces and look to press the ball aggressively, which is something that we’ll have to think about.”

Town will be without defender Jay Gasson (toe) and midfielder Jamie Brown (groin), while Nathan Smart is a doubt with a gashed shin.

The good news is that midfielder Simon Dunn has returned to training and could be fit to take his place in the squad after a hamstring injury.

Striker Liam Enver-Marum will also be fit to play, despite being forced out of the Maidenhead game with cramp.

Visit basingstokegazette.co.uk/sport for live text coverage from both of Town’s upcoming games.