EVESHAM United have vowed to give it their “best shot” in tomorrow’s eagerly-awaited top-of-the-table derby at runaway leaders Hereford FC (3pm).

Manager Paul Collicutt takes his third-placed Robins to Edgar Street hoping they can stop the Hereford juggernaut in Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West.

Hereford are unbeaten in the league this term, 13 points clear of nearest rivals Tiverton Town in the battle for an automatic promotion spot.

Collicutt watched Hereford dismantle Bishop’s Cleeve 4-0 in a one-sided affair last Tuesday.

“Hereford are a very good side with some top-quality players and you can see that from looking at their results this season,” he said.

“We will have our work cut out and are underdogs but we will give it our best shot and see what happens.

“I believe the pitch is in good nick and I think that will suit the way we want to play.

“Hopefully we can give a good account of ourselves and it will be a good advert for the league.”

The Robins will hope to bounce back from a “bitterly disappointing” 2-1 home defeat against Shortwood United on Boxing Day.

Collicutt admitted he was angry after his side let slip a 1-0 lead.

But he said: “If someone told me at the start of the year we would be third in the table at Christmas I would have snapped their hand off.”

Gloucester City loanee Leroy Odiero completes the second match of his suspension, while midfielder Joe Turley (knee ligaments) is awaiting a scan.

Collicutt continued: “It’s amazing to see what Hereford have achieved. Their supporters are fantastic and Pete Beadle has done a very good job.

“They have some very good players and are top for a reason. They are the best team in the league by some distance at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Hereford manager Beadle says he wants to carry on creating records as the Bulls enter the new year in scintillating form.

Beadle’s men only lost one league game in 2016 and have not been beaten away from home since August 2015.

But the Bulls boss says he does not want his players to take their foot off the gas and believe the title has already been won.

“I won’t let the players get into a false sense of security until it is mathematically impossible for other teams to catch us and even then I wouldn’t want us to take our foot off the gas,” said Beadle.

“To go the whole year having only lost one game is phenomenal and we want to carry on breaking records.

“But records are only good to look back on after they have been made.”

Hereford are hoping for a crowd of around 4,000 tomorrow which would be the Bulls’ biggest home attendance of the season.

Further games against high-fliers Taunton Town, Mangotsfield United and Tiverton Town also await Hereford in January.

Beadle continued: “It’s a big month for us and we want to end it with an even healthier lead than we’ve already got.”

The Evesham match is set to pit two of the league’s hottest strikers against each other.

John Mills has 20 goals for Hereford, while Lance Smith has netted 22 for Evesham and is the league’s leading scorer.

“They’ve got two lads up front who will get you goals but they’ve got scorers all across their team,” added Beadle.

Hereford beat Bishops Cleeve in front of 1,396 fans last week with Mills, an own goal, Rob Purdie and Mark Preece on target.