MALDON and Tiptree boss Kevin Horlock has warned his table-topping side that they will have to put in some hard graft if they are to win at Aveley this weekend.

But the Jammers manager says his players should travel to the Mill Field with plenty of confidence, following their recent fine run.

Maldon, who are eight matches unbeaten in the league, will take on their former boss Terry Spillane looking to strengthen their three-point lead at the top of the Ryman Division North table.

And they will go into the contest on a high, following their impressive 3-0 success over fellow promotion-chasing Bury Town at Park Drive last weekend.

Horlock said: “I’ll always go into a game with confidence.

“If we’re not going to be confident now, then we never will be on the back of the run we’ve had.

“I’m fully aware that it’s going to be a really, really tough game and different to when we’re playing at home.

“We’ll go there ready for that and we won’t go there thinking we’ve just got to turn up.

“We’ll have to do all of the horrible stuff and work our socks off and put in a real shift.

“If we do that, we’ve got a real chance of winning the game.”

Sam Newson scored twice and Kyle Hammond also netted in Maldon’s 3-0 triumph over Bury, last weekend.

It was Maldon’s ninth successive home win in the league and Horlock was pleased with the performance, particularly in the second half.

“It was really pleasing,” said the former Manchester City and Ipswich Town player.

“I don’t think we played as well as we can in the first half but we always looked comfortable at the back.

“We’ve set a really good foundation with the back four, goalkeeper and defensive midfielder keeping clean sheets and that will always give us a chance to win games because we create chances and score goals.

“In the second half, we were much more dominant and we won fairly comfortably against a team that was level on points with us and our goalkeeper hasn’t had a save to make.

“All it was was three points, to get to where we want to be and it was no more than that.

“Did I expect more from them? They may have had an off day but at home or away at times, if we play well we’ll not only beat teams in this division but we’ll also beat teams from the league above.”

Sam Newson returned to the Maldon starting line-up after being absent for personal reasons and marked his comeback by scoring twice.

Horlock added: “You know what you’re going to get from Sam and he’ll run himself into the ground.

“He’s a naturally fit lad anyway, so that wasn’t going to be an issue and he scores goals, which he proved (against Bury) when he scored two great goals.

“He hasn’t been available and hasn’t been at training for personal reasons.

“But as a manager, it’s great to know that you can trust a player coming in and you know what you’re going to get.”