MERTHYR Tydfil manager John Rellish is looking forward to the closest title scrap he has ever seen.

With less than half the season gone the top eight teams are still within a shout of winning the Southern Premier League as they are separated by just eight points.

Rellish admits there has been some strange results so far but still fancies his team to be somewhere near the top when the season draws to a close.

He said: "I have not seen a team that has frightened us this season, we are aiming to finish in the play offs, if we win the league it will be a bonus."

Chippenham could be playing their Welsh opponents at the right time as Merthyr have recently experienced a bad run of results.

They have not picked up a win in the league since December 18 when they beat Aylesbury 2-0.

Since then the Martyrs have only registered three points and have been turned over by fellow title contenders Halesowen and mid-table Grantham Town.

"We are not playing that badly, we are just conceding soft goals.

"Every team in this league have gone through a bad patch, just as Chippenham did when we last played them," said Rellish.

Merthyr turned out 3-2 winners in that game with goals from Chris Bale Jon Holloway and Craig Steins.

This time around the Welsh team will be missing their influential striker Gary Shephard who has just had a cartilage operation and will be missing for the next three weeks.

To add to Rellish's problems left back Paul Keddle is suspended and will miss the crucial match at Hardenhuish Park.

"Shephard is a big loss to us, he is a great player at this level but we will have to go on without him."

Even without Shephard Rellish is counting on his other striker, Steins, to net on Saturday.

Steins is currently seventh in the Southern League scoring charts with 14 goals and is Rellish's man to watch.

The manager is looking forward to the crunch clash on Saturday and says his players are all fired up.

"After the defeat against Grantham I told the players to forget about it and concentrate on the Chippenham game.

"Our players know a lot of the Chippenham players, which adds a bit of spice to the match."

Rellish is also expecting a good atmosphere for the match as two Merthyr supporters' coaches are already fully booked.

He is also expecting a good number of them to drive to the game, in all he thinks about 150 Welshman will enter Hardenhuish this weekend.