Peterborough Sports have five bigger games to play before their mouthwatering FA Trophy tie

Sports, who came from 2-0 down to beat National League South side Cheshunt 3-2 in the second round at the Bee Arena last Saturday, will play at Boundary Park on Saturday December 17.

But before then Jimmy Dean’s men have five National League North fixtures starting with a tricky trip to Leamington on Saturday.

Sports then host Farsley Celtic (December 3), travel to Scarborough Athletic on Tuesday, December 6 and Buxton on Saturday, December 10 before returning home to tackle Gloucester City on Tuesday, December 13.

Sports are currently 10th in the table, three points outside the play-off places. They are unbeaten in their last five competitive games despite a rash of injuries.

"It’s a great Trophy draw for us,” manager Dean admitted. "But we can’t get ahead of ourselves as we have a lot of important league games to play before then and we are currently operating with a threadbare squad.

"Leamington are just two points behind us. They haven’t lost for six matches, but five have been drawn so they will be hard to beat, but we travel with confidence because my players are getting results even when we are not at our best which we weren’t last weekend.

"I’m hoping to have a couple of big players back in the squad and we need them as we’ve been playing people out of position.

"They’ve done a great job, but you’ll only get away with that for so long at this level.”

Top scorer Jordan Nicholson and dashing left-back Nathan Fox are the players on the verge of a return after lengthy absences. Nicholson is the more likely to be included at Leamington.