WINCHESTER City hope their decision to bring forward their eagerly awaited FA Trophy tie against Weymouth to Friday night (7.45) is rewarded with a big gate.

On paper the first qualifying round match promises to be a mouthwatering spectacle with the Terras sitting third in the Southern Premier Division and Winchester scoring goals galore in their first season back in Division One South & West.

City’s director of football Dave Malone knows Weymouth goalkeeper/manager Jason Matthews well from their days together at Eastleigh and is delighted Dorset’s sleeping giants were up for switching from the regular Saturday afternoon slot to Friday night.

“It’s a chance for us to get a decent-sized crowd in and gives the players to weekend off, so it seemed the right thing to do,” said Malone.

“Obviously it makes it a bit harder for the Weymouth fans, but hopefully it will bring a lot of people in from the local area who might have gone elsewhere had we played it on Saturday.

“Weymouth were in complete agreement about playing on Friday, which was nice.”

City go into the game in red-hot home form, having hit four past both Banbury United and Bishops Cleeve in their last two Denplan City Ground outings, and in Warren Bentley they boast the South & West’s most prolific scorer with 25 goals in 14 games.

The Terras’ pedigree squad includes former Salisbury City duo Chris Shephard and Chris McPhee and ex-Plymouth Argyle and Truro City striker Stewart Yetton who all boast Football League experience.

The Trophy game comes in the middle of a hectic six-day period for Winchester, who travel to second-placed North Leigh tomorrow (Wednesday) before going back on their South & West travels to Burnham next Monday.

Tomorrow’s game will be a big test of their squad with Taz Roberts and Luke Benali both suspended, Micky Hubbard unavailable and Jake Newton and George Short still injured.

Weymouth are also in league action tomorrow at Frome Town.