WARRINGTON Town will not “gamble” on the fitness of in-form striker Josh Amis ahead of Saturday’s clash with Stafford Rangers.

The red-hot frontman has been a revelation since the turn of the year having scored 10 goals in his past nine appearances.

However, having been named in the starting line-up for Saturday’s 4-1 win at Mickleover Sports, Amis picked up a groin injury in the warm-up and was replaced by Bohan Dixon.

Amis did not train on Tuesday evening and with Dixon, Connor McCarthy and new signing Marcus Cusani offering viable alternatives, manager Paul Carden says he will not rush the 14-goal striker back only to risk losing him longer-term.

“Obviously, there’s something there with Josh but we’ll just have to see how it settles down,” he said.

“He didn’t train on Tuesday because I wanted him to get treatment to get it right.

“Hopefully after that, he’ll be able to train on Thursday and play on Saturday.

“One thing I don’t want to do is risk anybody being out longer than is necessary through us gambling on them.

“We don’t need to gamble on players’ fitness right now and I won’t be doing that.

“If Josh isn’t right, he’s not right and he won’t play.”

Saturday’s victory – coupled with a defeat for nearest rivals Farsley Celtic at Lancaster City – allowed Yellows to open up a four-point lead at the Evo-Stik Premier Division summit.

The Celts pulled back to within a point of Town by beating Workington in their game in hand on Tuesday night and now both sides are on a straight race to the finish line, with South Shields and Nantwich Town behind them.

> Straight race to the finish for Yellows and Farsley

Due to the quality of sides at both ends of the division, Carden says nobody should be surprised by any result between now and the end of the season.

“I don’t care what people want to say or do because there will be more twists and turns,” he said.

“Don’t be surprised if there’s more weekends like the last one where two of the three clubs drop points and there’s strange results going on.

“It can happen anywhere – there’s good players in every team in the league.

“Even North Ferriby, who seem to have accepted their fate, are putting pressure on teams and have had some close defeats.

“There’s never any results that shock you because there’s good players in every squad.

“Stafford will be difficult. They are down there but they have some good players.

“All I know is they are fighting for points the same way we are. We need to make sure we’re all on it and everyone is determined to do the right things.”

Warrington Town vs Stafford Rangers kicks off at 3pm at Cantilever Park