TAUNTON Town head of football Rob Dray said “the club is in a great place” as the Peacocks target a ninth straight win this Saturday, writes Richard Browne.

Town have been named as Premier Division South club of the month for November by the Southern League after a run of eight victories, the last of those a 7-0 trouncing of Harrow Borough at the weekend.

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"We've won eight in a row and been awarded team of the month for November," Dray told the County Gazette.

“The players have been unbelievable, and the club is in a great place."

Their five-point cushion at the league summit remains because second-placed Weymouth were shocked 3-1 at home by Gosport Borough on Tuesday night.

Dray said: "It is [a boost for Taunton], but this league dictates that most teams can beat any of the others, so we have got to be well prepared so the same does not happen to us.

"We have to keep our levels high and adapt to the changing pitches at this time of year."

Now Taunton go to 12th-placed Hartley Wintney on Saturday (ko 3pm).

Dray expects to have Ben Adelsbury, Pierce Mitchell and Dan Sullivan back in his squad after they all missed the win over Harrow, though young midfielder Harry Gardner is in Spain, having trials with clubs there.

The boss said: "Hartley have brought in a couple of lads on loan from QPR, and we expect to face a good side.

"We haven't been there before, and it will be tough away from home – that always evens it up.

“We’ve got to go there and apply ourselves, keep working hard, and be solid and professional.

“If we don’t concede, we know we can score goals from anywhere in the team – even from 60 yards as Ed Palmer has just done!”

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TAUNTON’S home match with Beaconsfield Town (postponed from December 1) has been rescheduled for Wednesday, January 9 (ko 7.45pm).

And Taunton have been drawn at home to Bath City in the Somerset Premier Cup quarter-finals, to be played in the week commencing February 18.

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Opposition in focus

THE first of two successive away matches sees Taunton Town travel to face Hartley Wintney this Saturday (ko 3pm), writes Richard Browne.

Known as ‘The Row’, the Hampshire side were founded in 1897 and now play at the 2,000-capacity Memorial Playing Fields.

The village of Hartley Wintney is eight miles east of Basingstoke, and the club played in the Basingstoke & District League and Aldershot & District League, before being founder members of the Combined Counties League in 1978.

They were league champions in 1983, under manager Ian Bedford, but two decades of decline ended with them yo-yoing between the Premier Division and Division 1 in the mid-2000s.

But promotion back into the Premier Division in 2012 was followed by league titles in 2016 and 2017, the latter win earning them a spot in the Southern League.

Momentum was clearly with them now, as was Rowan Vine, the ex-Portsmouth, Luton Town and QPR striker, who proved an inspired signing before being tempted away to join Gosport Borough’s coaching staff.

A fourth-place finish in the East Division saw them contest the play-offs, where they beat AFC Dunstable and Cambridge City to join Taunton in Premier Division South this season.

Co-managed by Anthony Millerick (who arrived in 2015) and Daniel Turkington, The Row are pootling along well enough this campaign, currently sitting in 12th place.

That is just four points clear of the dropzone, in what is a closely-contested bottom half of the table, though – so they are far from safe.

They’re not in the best form, losing four of their last six league games, though they did win 3-1 at local rivals Basingstoke Town and draw 1-1 away to Tiverton Town.

Ross Cook and Tyron Smith have six league goals each for Hartley, while Nic Ciardini – the scorer of their play-off final winner against Cambridge – has four.

They’ve also managed to get Vine back, the now 36-year-old scoring twice in a 4-2 loss at Salisbury last month.

And The Row received a boost on Tuesday afternoon, with the announcement that Joe Felix and Mickel Platt had arrived from QPR on short-term loan deals.