Whyteleafe boss John Fowler welcomes his old cohorts Chipstead to Church Road tonight, but he is determined to send them back across the valley empty handed.

Fowler, who has guided Leafe to second in Ryman Division One South on the back of Friday’s 5-1 thumping of Corinthian Casuals, was a player and assistant manager at tonight’s visitors when they won the Combined Counties Premier Division title in 2007.

Leafe’s derby rivals started the season on fire winning five out of five, but they have fallen away winning just one in the past six.

However, Fowler is reading little into statistics and instead is preparing for a competitive derby.

“Every team will have a slump and you have to remember that Chipstead have had some excellent results against strong teams,” he said.

“I can’t see tonight being a cagey affair with both sides trying to catch each other out on the break.

“It’s a local derby so it’s probably going to be open with a high tempo.

“There will be some edge to it, but from a personal point of view it is nice to be up against Chipstead. I have good memories from my time there and obviously I’ll know a lot of faces.

“But we want the points, no doubt.”

After just two defeats in 15 games, Leafe are second only to runaway leaders Burgess Hill Town – who reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup last weekend – but Fowler will not let their lofty position go to the players’ heads.

He said: “We don’t look at the fixtures. We’re just enjoying where we are at the moment, the guys are comfortable with their football. We are solid, hard to break down and are scoring goals.

“If we can keep this consistency, then I believe we can be right up there come the end of the season.”

Fowler will be without Louis Hollingsworth (head injury) and Tommy Harper (work commitments) for tonight’s game.