Top-flight football might be back this weekend but a Sunday League team plying their trade at a village pavilion are hoping a crucial clash with their main title rivals is enough to tempt fans away from the television and help boost their attendance.

As it stands, about four people are expected to be competing for the best view from the touchline when New Ash Green III go up against Swanscombe Tigers Reserves in the North Kent Sunday League at the Punch Croft pavilion, with kick-off scheduled for 10.45am.

But the home side's skipper James Belsey is a graphic designer by trade and has put his professional skills into practice by coming up with some posters to put up around the village in the hope of ensuring an atmosphere more befitting of such a monumental fixture.

"Usually the under-eights on the pitch next to us have more people watching them," bemoaned the 33-year-old midfielder.

"It's a big game so I just asked the guys if they wanted to put some posters out and about and try and get the attendance into double figures for a change.

"Most of the team are young lads and we're playing against adults - four of the guys work together in the Co-op."

So far this campaign not even the mums of the younger players' have tended to stay to watch after dropping them off in the car.

At the moment the majority of the side's support comes from the pavilion itself, which offered to provide the players with post-match drinks but had to swap the booze for sausage rolls when told most of them were under-18.

But their talent has outweighed their lack of experience so far this season and they sit third in the table with three wins from three games, the type of form that usually means an England call-up cannot be too far away.

No doubt Sunday's opponents will prove their toughest test yet, with a goal difference even greater than Pep Guardiola's free-flowing Manchester City.

They also have maximum points from their four games and sit at the league summit.

Boss Stuart Sutton, a 35-year-old engineer who's been at the club since 1993, said: "We are the team to beat. The lowest score we've had was 5-2 and the other week we won a game 10-1, we've also won two cup games.

"We've got a squad of about 30 so we put a different side out every week. We're an older side. Most of our players are in their mid-30s, the oldest is 52 and the youngest has just turned 17."