NORTH Petherton captain Damian Griffin has urged his side to relish their underdogs tag when they take on fierce rivals Bridgwater & Albion on Saturday.

Pethy head into the fixture with an impressive derby record, having won four of the last five games between the sides – but Griffin believes Bridgwater’s superior league position makes them favourites.

He said: “We are going into the game as underdogs as we are below them in the table but we probably prefer that because it takes some of the pressure off us.

“We have already beaten them this season, so we are going to try and treat it like any other fixture – but, in reality, we know it is bigger than that.

“There’s a lot of passion in our dressing room and that has helped us massively in these games in the last few seasons.

“The huge crowd is another thing that helps motivate us and these games are always great to play in.”

December was a miserable month for the Beggars Brook side, losing three games on the bounce – but Griffin believes his side have now turned things around in time for the season’s run-in.

He said: “Christmas is a notoriously bad period for us for one reason or another but the last few weeks we have got a few players back and we have been playing much better.

“The lads have been working really hard and that hard work has been paying off on the pitch.”