WIVENHOE TOWN boss Mo Osman believes his side will have one foot in the premier division if they win tonight’s crunch derby against fellow high-fliers HALSTEAD TOWN.

The sides are set to meet in a 7.45pm kick-off at the Maple Tree Cars Stadium.

Wivenhoe are the runaway first division leaders with an 18-point advantage over the fourth-placed Humbugs.

Osman and his players therefore know that another win tonight would effectively put their rivals out of reach and guarantee a top-three promotion position.

“Hopefully we’ll get a big crowd and give a good account of ourselves,” said the Wivenhoe boss.

“And if we can win this one, I think we’d be more or less there in terms of promotion.

“It would be like gaining six points, because we’d earn three and stop one of our main rivals getting any.

“We’re 18 points ahead already and a victory would stretch that to 21.

“That’s a big gap, with not too many fixtures left, and we’ve also got a much better goal difference, which is almost worth another point.

“It would certainly take a brave betting man not to back us from that position.

“We’d have to lose seven or eight of our remaining matches to run the risk of being caught.

“Of course, we’ve got no divine right to win, though, and it was a good, close match when we played them at Rosemary Lane.

“It should be an excellent game and it’s good for the league that it’s being played on a Friday night.”

Osman has consistently said that promotion is his number one goal.

Only then, when a top-three spot has been secured, will he fix his sights on cementing top spot.

“We just have to keep winning and hope we get over the line as soon as possible,” he said.

“From this position, we want to go on and win the league but there are still some big games to come, against Halstead tonight and then Ely and Yarmouth.

“It’s certainly an enjoyable position to be in in the middle of March.”

Halstead boss Mark Benterman insists his side will be going all-out for victory and felt they were unfortunate to lose 3-2 in the recent reverse match at Rosemary Lane.

“Hand on heart, we will be going to get three points and felt we were unlucky not to get something from the first game,” he said.

“We have to go there with the mindset that we will go for the win and my team selection will have that in mind.

“We hold Wivenhoe in great respect, but why go there expecting anything less than a win?

“I know our fans won’t - they’ve been fantastic - so neither will we.”