HEAD coach Ben Smith is expecting Ledbury Rugby Club to shift through the gears in tomorrow’s clash against Southam at Ross Road (2.15pm).

Ledbury rounded off the year with an impressive 44-10 victory against Shipston-on-Stour and will be hoping to hit the ground running in 2015.

The Herefordshire outfit are seventh in the Midlands Three West (South) table and will look to avenge a 27-22 defeat at Southam in September.

“We have had a rest over the Christmas period because the players had been hitting the training ground very hard in 2014,” said Smith.

“But we have regrouped and been hard at training this week to blow away the cobwebs and to get things moving again.”

He continued: “I would expect we will be making a bit of a slow start to the match before getting the gears in motion.

“Once we get going I am sure we will be putting our game plan into place so I will be hoping for a good result and to carry on the results from previous games.”

Ledbury are in decent form, having won four of their last five league matches.

Despite having home advantage, Smith is expecting a tough test against ninth-placed Southam.

“We have had many close games with Southam over the years and always look forward to playing against them because they are a team that wants to play rugby,” said Smith, who coaches the first team with Elliot Bee.

“We are very much looking forward to the game and continuing our good form.

“As with most matches, we always have a turnover of players but we are missing at least one player who is serving a ban from our previous game.”

Ledbury have six victories from 12 outings in the league this term and are 17 points adrift of a play-off spot.

Smith added: “I believe a top-half finish is essential and we are capable of pushing into the top four.

“Quietly, the players are looking forward to this part of the season compared to last season when we were in the top three and fell apart.

“This year we are nicely poised and know that the post-Christmas games are massive for us.

“We now know what it takes to push on.

“We have put in some big performances away from home against the top three teams so we are looking forward to hosting them at Ross Road and trying to take a few points off them.”