The experienced custodian discussed the competition for places at the Maurice Rebak Stadium

Wingate & Finchley return to Bostik Premier action on Saturday after a two-week break eager to make it three victories in a row.

After starting the 2018/19 campaign slowly, Keith Rowland’s team appear to be heading in the right direction again ahead of entertaining Lewes

The Rooks have also had a mixed start to the season and sit 10th in the table with nine points – five spots above Wingate, who have eight points.

On Saturday Lewes will come up against an in-form Blues side, who have won their last two matches.

Ahead of a break from Bostik Premier action, Wingate secured a 2-0 win over Merstham at the Maurice Rebak Stadium on September 15.

It gave the north London outfit a first clean sheet of the campaign much to the delight of experienced goalkeeper Shane Gore.

He told WingateTV: “It’s been a weird old summer in terms of the gaffer not being around (due to a hip operation).

“It shouldn’t be an excuse and we haven’t had the best of starts and we have been chopping and changing the formation a bit, but we have people coming back now.

“We have people like Tim (Monsheju), who started against Merstham and Chase O’Neill and young Brandon McKenna who come on and was very good like he was at Mildenhall Town (on September 11).

“We have players like Marc Charles-Smith and Rob Laney on the bench, so they will be hungry to get back in and that’s what you want. It is two wins in a row, so hopefully we will build on this.”

After hosting Lewes on Saturday, Wingate will be on the road next week to take on Bishop’s Stortford.

The Blues make the trip up the M11 for another league encounter, but after not playing for two weeks, will they be rusty?

Gore doesn’t think so and is hopeful Wingate will stay on track, he said: “To go into the break with a win is obviously better than dwelling on a loss, so I feel we can build on this.”