Assistant coach Gary Mallory is urging stuttering Devonshire Cougars to take advantage of points dropped by their rivals when they lock horns with Dandy Town tonight.

Cougars have made a dismal start to their title defence with a paltry point from three outings, but can swallow up ground on joint leaders North Village and PHC, who shared the spoils at the weekend.

Mallory believes that result (a 1-1 draw) will be a source of motivation not only for the Big Cats, but also for Dandy Town who are just three points behind the table-toppers' who are level on eight.

"When the top teams play each other you always hope they share the points," Mallory said. "In that respect the draw (between PHC and North Village) was a good result for us.

"Our game against Dandy Town now represents a good opportunity for us to make up some ground. That should motivate us.

"At the moment a lot of teams in the league seem capable of beating each other and we know Dandy Town will also be looking for victory, so it won't be an easy game.

"They will also view it as a chance to close the gap on the leaders so it's quite an important match for both teams." Expectations of Cougars rocketed after they thrashed Devonshire Colts in the Charity Cup, before blitzing 'bogey team' Somerset Trojans and Boulevard during their march to next month's Martonmere Cup final.

They also beat Dandy Town 4-1 in the Martonmere Cup semi-final and Mallory wants Cougars to carry over their impressive cup form into their hitherto sluggish league campaign.

"We haven't won in the league yet this season and we have home advantage (in tonight's game) so it's about time we set the record straight," he said.

"But it's a long season and there's a lot of football ahead of us so fortunately we've time for turn things around.

"Our dressing room is confident and we just need to get ourselves back in the right frame of mind. We made a good start with our Charity Cup win and we've another chance to get our hands on a trophy in the Martonmere Cup next month.

"We've a full strength side to pick from now and whatever 11 players go out on the pitch we expect a good performance. We've no excuses."