GREAT Wakering Rovers manager Iain O’Connell is relishing the Essex Senior League run-in as he bids to guide his side to promotion.

Rovers sit top of the standings on goal difference with nine games remaining and travel to 10th-placed Woodford Town tonight.

Sixteen wins in their last 18 league matches have catapulted O’Connell’s men to the summit.

But the Rovers chief is taking nothing for granted ahead of the run-in, which sees matches against fellow title-hopefuls Takeley and FC Romania - the latter in the penultimate game of the season.

“We have some difficult games left but it is not a terrible run,” said O’Connell. “We have played all the teams in the league and sometimes you can be fooled into thinking you have an easy game and that is not the case.

“We can only look at each game and do our best in each. Every game as tough as people raise their game against us.”

“We play Woodford tonight and we know their strengths. I have Billy Johnson out and he won’t be right for a little while which is a blow but we will manage.”

Great Wakering are also in the semi-final of the Errington Challenge Cup, with FC Romania their opponents.

But, despite numerous league postponements recently due to the weather, O’Connell does not see Wakering’s cup involvement as a hindrance to their league aspirations.

“This weather is draining and you have to prepare as if the game will be on,” he said. “We are left in one cup so it is only another two games. It is nice to win a cup and it is not a hindrance for us.”