MIDDLEWICH Town manager Terry Murphy wants his team to become the Arsenal of mid Cheshire.

Town, by their own admission, have had an indifferent start to the season, losing twice in their opening 11 matches.

And now Murphy wants his team to go on a long unbeaten run to mirror that of the Premier League champions.

He said: "To be honest I was a bit disappointed at the start of the season. But I had a long chat with the team and they've responded well.

"We're in a similar position to last season when we had a bit of a ropey start, but picked up and went on a good run to Christmas.

"It's important this term that we get a run together coming up to Christmas and go on from there."

He added: "It would be nice to go unbeaten like Arsenal because when you start winning games, or go unbeaten, you gain a lot of confidence and start to believe you can't be beaten.

"However, Barnton will be saying the same thing. They're a good side with good players and with no disrespect to the other clubs in the division it does look like it will be a two horse race."

Middlewich are now just one point ahead of their arch rivals Barnton, who they face on Saturday in the league cup, and have played two games more.

But Murphy is not concerned about Barnton having games in hand as the former league champions will be missing for much of November due to the second round of the UEFA Regions Cup.

He added: "This is an opportunity to open up a bit of a gap.

"I said this last time they were in the competition and we got beat a couple of times, but we're playing much better now and in the past couple of weeks the lads have done really well."

Middlewich kick off at home against Barnton on Saturday at 3pm and, aside from Lee Murphy who is missing through work commitments, the manager has a full squad to choose from.