Weaver insists title race not over ahead of County clash

Second-placed Town lost out 2-1 to leaders Salford City on Saturday, falling 11 points behind them at the top of the table, albeit with a game in hand.

And Weaver insists that three points against Stockport will keep his team well and truly in the running.

“We can’t be too downbeat,” he said.

“We’ve come to the top of the table and shown the league is very much still alive.

“I think we sent Salford a message with the standard of our display against them.

“We can now send them back a message by cutting the lead to eight. They’ve got some tough games coming up and with the state of their pitch, it’s more of a lottery now.

“It’s wide open still, although everyone will say it’s an insurmountable gap. We carved Salford open at times.”

Town shared an entertaining 2-2 draw with Stockport at Edgeley Park back in August, Simon Ainge’s brace handing his side a two-goal lead at half-time before the hosts fought back.

And Weaver is backing his players to go one better this time around and secure maximum points, imploring them not to stew on the Salford reverse.

“We can’t now beat ourselves up and go into the Stockport game hungover - absolutely not,” he addded.

“We’ve got a lot of talent back in the team and can go into every game believing we can get something.”

Kick-off at the CNG Stadium is at 7.45pm.