CHESHAM United boss Andy Leese is pinning his hopes on two of his key match winners as they prepare for a crunch game with Stourbridge at The Meadow tomorrow.

The Generals have gone off the boil a bit lately in the Southern Premier League but a six-goal drubbing of Northwood in the cup last week provided something for their manager to cling on to.

He said: “We’ve had a couple of defeats but we’re playing ok and there were signs against Northwood that we’re getting back to where we need to be.

“We’ve had a good chat and the players know what is expected of them in the second half of the season, but there have been signs our match-winners are getting back into the groove.”

By match-winners, Leese means Steve Wales and Leon Archer.

Leese said: “By their own admission they haven’t been playing as well as they could, but they scored a couple of goals each against Northwood and they were instinctive finishes, which suggests they’re not thinking too hard about it.

“It’s good, because this is a busy period and we need everybody playing near their potential and we need to get some wins on the board.”

Tomorrow’s opponents are just one place and one point behind Chesham but they have three games in hand after an extended FA Cup run.

Leese said: “We could do with keeping them at arm’s reach. It’s going to be an interesting contest but we’ll prepare as well as we can and see where that gets us.

Chesham go into the game on the back of an enforced mid-season break.

They haven’t played since their six-goal blast against Northwood with last Saturday’s clash with Weybridge being rearranged due to cup commitments and their Berks and Bucks quarter-final with Slough frozen off on Tuesday.

Leese isn’t worried.

He said: “We could have done with giving one or two a game, but I’m not too concerned. We had a good long session on Saturday and one or two were carrying knocks anyway.”