West Norfolk boss Nigel Richardson is looking to forget the end of 2012 — by getting the new year off to a flier tomorrow.

The North Wootton outfit endured a miserable run through November and December as they lost five of their six games, including three on the bounce before Christmas, to slide down the Greene King Eastern Counties Division One table.

However, ahead of Southwold's visit to Gatehouse Lane at the weekend, Richardson believes his troops can go into 2013 feeling refreshed and positive after their festive break.

The Wests' boss said: 'The rest was needed for a few lads and hopefully we can start 2013 off with a bang. I was looking forward to the end of the year but we'll start this one off positively.

'There's not too much negativity about because we were beaten by teams who are improving while we had injury setbacks. It was a tough period. But now we're looking to move on, start a fresh, and go into the second-half of the season feeling revitalised.

'We need to forget the end of 2012, move on, and hopefully get off to a positive start in 2013.'

Richardson's men, eighth, can be leapfrogged by Southwold, 10th, in the 12-team table if they lose the vital clash in Wootton.

However, despite a 26-21 defeat in the reverse fixture earlier this term, Wests' manager insists his side stand a good chance of picking up a victory in their first game of the year.

Richardson said: 'All games are important. They are below us and they've got to travel a fair way but we won't be taking those points lightly. We'll take every game as it comes and we're positive.

'Hopefully we can get some scores on the board because we've not been doing that enough. They beat us narrowly but I felt we were the better team on the day, in what was one of our first away games. We didn't deserve to lose and we were a bit naive. We didn't attack enough but we will be doing that tomorrow.'

Ted Maule, who returned from injury against Ely before the festive break, could be joined in the ranks by captain Paul Denton, Jake Richardson and Sean Brundle, who have all been sidelined of late.

Wests' manager said: 'Hopefully we'll have at least one or two back. We'll know more after training (last night) as to whether some of them can be available.'