CIRENCESTER Town boss Brian Hughes thinks someone at the FA doesn’t like him.

His team’s opening handful of games in the Southern Premier Division have been against three of the top five – and they are due to play the other two members of that quintet this weekend.

Town host fifth-placed Slough Town on Saturday before travelling to unbeaten league leaders and derby rivals Chippenham on Bank Holiday Monday.

In addition, when the draw for the first qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup was made this week, Cirencester Town came out of the hat with an away trip to Dorset’s Gillingham Town of the Western League on September 3.

Gillingham have already notched one win in the competition with a 2-0 victory over AFC Totton.

“I’m not thinking about the FA Cup yet, that’s on Saturday week,” said Hughes.

“What I do know is that this weekend’s two games are as tough as you could wish for.”

Hughes’ side have beaten Biggleswade and got a battling draw at Dorchester but against high flying trio Leamington, Frome and Merthyr they have shipped 10 goals and replied with just two.

“We don’t look like we can stand toe to toe with big boys at the moment,” said Hughes. We’re between a rock and a hard place in that we set ourselves up to be hard to beat but that prevents us being much of a threat at the other end.

“When the opposition think you don’t offer a lot up top they come forward even more. Charlie (Griffin) got 24 goals last season but he has scored just one penalty so far and has had very limited opportunities.

“The two games we have scored first (Biggleswade and Dorchester) we have played well and looked a decent side, getting something out of both matches.

“But setting up more defensively hasn’t stopped the goals coming so this week we will be working on getting more bodies forward. We need to find a better balance.”

Cirencester did not play as well at Merthyr – where they took on former Centurions Glyn Garner and Gethin Jones – as they had against Biggleswade and Dorchester, but still had spells on top.

Ross Langworthy was preferred in the front three to Lee Smith and came closest to scoring for the visitors, hitting the woodwork in the first half and forcing Garner into making two good saves late on.

“Ross made an instant impact with a goal when he came off the bench at Dorchester and deserved his chance to start,” said Hughes.

“Both the saves Glyn had to make at the end were from Ross.

“However, we did not reach the standard we showed against both Biggleswade and Dorchester. I thought we lacked the energy that is key to our game.

“We may lack a little flair and quality but we usually make up for that through hard work.

“I agree with Glyn’s assessment that we had spells on top at Merthyr in the first half but their second goal just before half-time killed us.”