Fresh from last week's crushing 5-1 win over rival Dunedin Technical, Caversham coach Tim Horner knows that an FPL championship is more of a marathon than a sprint, but is happy with his team's present form.
This week, striker Tom Jackson is still under suspension cloud, but sturdy fullback Craig Ferguson will return, if his minor hamstring injury has cleared up.
How the injury responds to treatment or rest will be a decision for Horner, who recognises the long-term value of Ferguson in his FPL campaign.
''Until he came off, Fergie was playing exceptionally well,'' Horner said.
Certainly this season, Ferguson blends strong defence, with a slightly freer role moving forward, where his deceptive pace and control can unbalance opposition sides.
Mosgiel hammered in four goals last week against Northern, with Tim Dunn bagging two headed goals for the Taieri side. Dunn has real pace and his ability to get past defenders is a real weapon in coach Andrew Brook's armoury.
Equally direct is Riley Anderton, who has scoring ability as shown by some top goals already this season.
James McGarry can also finish, given space, but that will be Mosgiel's problem - to create space against a Caversham side that closes opposition down quickly, and can be quite physical.
Added spice in this match will be the Blair Davidson Challenge Shield, which Mosgiel holds and which Caversham is aiming to claim.
Northern coach Murray Devereux was presented with his first three competition points of the season this week, as Varsity was penalised for playing an unregistered player.
Now above bottom-placed Queenstown, the free points might spark a Northern revival this week against Roslyn-Wakari at Forrester Park.
Roslyn made hard work of beating Queenstown 3-2 last week, and the goals came from an unexpected quarter, as youngster Ben O'Farrell twice hit the net.
Coach Colin Thom's team has pace and ability, yet rarely converts its many goalscoring chances, keeping supporters on edge.
But if Tom Connor, Jacob Schneider, Geordie Mansford and Cam Attwood continue to win possession, and the free running striker Damo Foster adjusts his sights, goals should come.
At the Caledonian ground, Dunedin Technical has another tricky game against University at 2.45pm.
If the students hit form, they will test a Technical defence that, without centreback Matt Joy, looked fragile last week. Coach Luiz Uehara claims that his five-year plan is coming to fruition, and the best of Varsity's game is impressive.
However, the transition from attack to defence can still be sloppy, allowing opposition to counter attack and test keeper Jef Potrich and centreback Peter Overmire. Last week, a very late goal was required to rescue a win for the students.
Any gaps that do exist will surely be exposed by Technical's hard running Alistair Rickerby and Taylor McCormack. The Technical side will have to do without Richard Smith, who is unavailable, as are Joy, Sam Enright, and Tim McLennan.
New coach and veteran striker Aaron Burgess might be back in action, leading Technical's attack.
Green Island's young team is a work in progress, coach Malcolm Fleming said.
''They train well, but we sometimes lose our passing game, and allow the opposition to take advantage. We will have to be tighter against Queenstown up there,'' he said.
Bottom-placed Queenstown, will have a crick in its neck looking upwards at the rest of the league at the moment, but it is a talented side, capable of beating any other FPL side on the day.
