ANDY Davies is facing the nice headache of having a strong Thornbury Town squad to push for glory in the Gloucestershire County League this season.

However the manager has said that players will have to be patient about getting their chances to impress or will have to move on if they cannot wait.

Thornbury are unbeaten so far after three games, having beaten Henbury 3-0 at home, Frampton United, who finished high up in last year’s final league standings, 2-0 away and drew at the Mundy Playing Fields last Saturday 1-1 with former champions and reigning Les James League Cup winners AEK Boco.

This Saturday, Thornbury travel away to Hardwicke for a tough encounter as they look to keep up their challenge on early leaders Lebeq United, who have scored 16 goals and conceded just one in their three successive wins so far.

Therefore, it is so far, so good for Davies and Thornbury and the manager said: “It’s early days but we are getting there.

“I have a couple of players missing for the weekend. But I have 18 players in the squad now instead of 14 or 15.”

And he has strengthened the forward line. Star striker Craig Lancastle is still the main man up front but Davies has added Brandon Benjamin, Marcus Wormwell and Dan Rees to support goal-hungry Lancastle.

But he is not going to alter the way he wants Thornbury to play their football. “One of our philosophies is we play in the same way and try great things instead of lumping the ball up to the front. Sometimes, though, they can overplay this type of football.

“I am not going to change my principles on the way I want the team to play our football. When we do play, we play really well.

“There is competition for places and players are stepping up to it. It’s always healthy to have competition for places.

“They have to accept the decisions I make about selection. They all want to play and everyone cannot play. If they cannot accept my decisions, then that’s tough (on the players).”

Davies is not getting over anxious either that Lebeq’s, a new team in the league, have made such a big start to the season. “They have scored 16 goals but you only get three points for winning matches. As long as we stay alongside them, they will drop points,” added the Thornbury manager.

So he will look to continue the good work against Hardwicke but knows that Town face a tough task to maintain the unbeaten run.

“Hardwicke are a hard team to play because they are a physical side and they play for the big man up front but I’m not worried about what they are going to do.

“We are only three games in and there are a lot of games to go yet.”