Things only going to get better for Gosport Borough as they look to ramp up play-off charge in second half of the season

Fifth-placed Boro hit the halfway mark of the season sitting in the final play-off spot after last weekend's home draw with Dorchester.

Gale's side have acquired 37 points from 21 league outings and kick-off the second half of their campaign with a trip to bottom-side Wimborne on Saturday.

The Boro boss, who has been without key squad members such as captain Mike Carter, striker Matt Paterson, Rory Williams and Bradley Tarbuck among others across period of this season, insists things will only improve between now and the end of this term.

And Gale says the bare minimum he wants from his squad is to surpass the 37 points they've amassed so far in the remaining 21 league matches this term.

The Gosport boss said: ‘We’ve got to try to stay in and around where we are. I’d like to think we’ll have more senior players available (in the second half of the season).

‘We’ve had a big chunk of our senior players missing for the majority of the games so if we can get them back involved with the players we’ve got already, I’d like to think we’d do better, that’s the aim really. If you want to be in the mix, we’ve got to do better, it’s as simple as that.

‘We’ve had a good first half of the season but we’ve got to challenge ourselves to do better in the second half of the season.

‘If we can get Mike Carter back fully fit and functioning, Matt Paterson fit and functioning, Nick Dembele has been missing for the past four or five games - they’re big losses to us.

‘If we can get them back playing as well as what we’ve already got then I’m hoping we can have a much better second half of the season. It would be an excellent season then and where it takes us we’ll see.’

Gosport were made to work hard for their 2-0 win over bottom-side Wimborne when the teams met at Privett Park at the start of this month - and boss Gale is expecting no different when the sides face off again this weekend.

Both Mason Walsh (illness) and Rory Williams (hamstring) could be in contention to feature from the outset after coming on as substitutes against Dorchester.

But Gale conceded the game is likely to come too soon for leading scorer Nick Dembele, who is continuing his recovery from an ankle issue.

Midfielder Bouwe Bosma could be set for a quick reunion with his former team-mates after swapping Gosport for Wimborne earlier this week.