Halstead Town manager Mark Benterman feels tonight’s eye-catching Thurlow Nunn League division one action will be a chance for his players to say thank you to the club’s supporters.

The Humbugs will welcome division one’s runaway leaders Wivenhoe Town for a Friday night game under the Rosemary Lane floodlights (kick-off 7.45pm) and Benterman is expecting a big crowd for the much-anticipated encounter.

While Wivenhoe boast the record of being Essex’s only side playing in senior football to be unbeaten in their respective league campaign this season, Halstead come into it on the back of a stirring 3-2 win at Downham Town last weekend when they came back from a two-goal half-time deficit to win in the last minute.

Benterman knows that a vocal home crowd could assist his team even further tonight, but he is also clear that it is his players’ responsibility to lift those in the stands rather than the other way round.

He said: “We know we are in the entertainment business and we felt like we gave our fans who travelled up to Downham value for money on Saturday.

“They were buzzing after seeing us come back from two goals down to win it in the last minute and our lads have been buzzing on the back of that this week.

“It’s very exciting times for the club as we know what we can achieve.

“It’s Wivenhoe coming to us tonight, which is a great local derby and also Friday night football, which is always special and something we haven’t had for a number of years.

“I think there could be a crowd between 250 and 300 and it can be a great money-spinner for the club.

“It’s always great to be involved in nights like that.

“We will need the fans to be behind the boys, but we appreciate everything that the supporters have done for the club this year with everything that has gone on around the ground.

“We owe them a performance for their hard work and everything they have done for us.

“We’d love to see as many people coming from the town as possible because we are a community club and we want to be attracting as many as we can.”

The Dragons will arrive tonight having dropped just four points this season and with no defeats in division one so far this year.

Benterman is well aware of the threats they pose, but he is also confident that his team have enough to be the first to blemish their record.

He added: “We are there to entertain, but we are also there to get three points.

“We have watched Wivenhoe five or six times and their strength is in their strike force – that is obvious.

“Two former Halstead boys – Ray Turner and Adam Hampson – and Joe Heron have got more than 40 goals between them, but there aren’t many other goals coming from anywhere else.

“However, we can’t concerned about them.

“We have to worry about ourselves and make sure we perform like we know we can.

“We have to treat it like a cup final as the incentives are massive for us.

“We have to conduct ourselves correctly, make sure we are proud of ourselves at the end and have no regrets.”

Benterman said Ricky Spriggs, Mark Dallinger and Tom Cook would all return after being unavailable last week and he didn’t expect to have any injury concerns for the game.