PAUL Masters believes Winchester City’s improving ability to “win ugly” will serve them well between now and the end of February.

While admitting that last Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Shortwood was “not a lovely game to watch or to play in”, the manager was pleased to see City dig deep in driving wind and rain to pocket three precious Southern One South & West points thanks to second-half strikes from Matt Benham and Taz Roberts.

The third-placed Citizens are at home again on Saturday, to Tiverton Town, looking to pull off a seventh straight league victory, writes Wendy Gee.

But they can expect another tough slog against Tivvy, who are level on points with them in fourth spot and themselves beat Shortwood 4-1 in midweek – nearly all the damage inflicted in the first 35 minutes at a blustery Ladysmead.

Given that Shortwood had looked such a useful outfit against City just three days previously, it was a somewhat surprising result.

But Masters believes that, at this time of year, conditions can have a huge influence.

“If you’re kicking with the wind you can quite easily go in two or three up at half-time,” he said. “I wouldn’t say we were lucky in the first half against Shortwood, but we were pleased to go in 1-0 down.

“The conditions were tough last week, but we’ve got a bit of resolve about us now and we’ve shown we can win ugly.

“When I used to play it was always a tough period between now and the end of February, but if we can dig in and stay there or thereabouts we’ve got a chance come the end of the season.

“The players we’ve brought in have helped improve our resilience and we’ve got a really strong team spirit.”

With Jamie Thoroughgood kept away by work commitments, Leigh Mills is likely to switch to central defence this weekend and Masters is hopeful full-back Jake Newton will be fit to play.

“Where Jake’s just back from injury and the pitches are a bit soft, he’s struggling a bit with a muscle problem, but we’re trying to manage him,” he explained.