Kirkley & Pakefield boss Paul Tong hopes the recent cold snap could work in his side's favour.

The Royals have played 25 of their 38 league games so far this season with only Thetford playing more and it means other sides in the division face a potential fixture backlog.

Teams like Wisbech and Hadleigh have played just 19 games so far and Tong hopes the fact his side have managed to break the back of their league programme could work to his side's benefit.

'You always like to have points on the board and I don't like chasing games so we have been more fortunate than others in that respect,' he said. 'David (Hackney, fixtures secretary) has done a great job in organising our fixtures.

'We have still go to get some points on the board though – it does not look like we are going to get to the target I set them at the start of the season.'

Tong is not satisfied by the Royals' recent display and is demanding an improvement from his squad.

'We have got to knuckle down – out of our last 10 games we have won two, drawn three and lost five. That needs to improve but at the moment we are conceding too many goals and not scoring enough - not a great recipe for success!

'What has been disappointing in that in a lot of our recent games we have been out of it before half-time. That's down to a mental thing - I may have to make one or two changes – at this point we are trying to promote from within but there might be one or two other things happening. We will see.'

Kirkley are due to go to Wivenhoe tomorrow, weather permitting and Tong has warned his side against complacency against one of the division's strugglers.

'They have not lost any of their last three games so they seem to have turned the corner,' said the former Great Yarmouth Town boss, who expects to have Kyle Baker back from injury although the match will come too soon for Ryan Crisp, who is sidelined with a hamstring strain. 'It's going to be a tough game and it's never an easy place to go. We've got to approach the game in the right attitude and we cannot afford to take them lightly.