DAVID Dunn believes a Christmas break in November could pay dividends for Lions when they line up at home to National Two South leaders Worthing tomorrow (2.30pm).

National League new-boys Lions are used to two or three weeks off over the festive period, but Dunn’s men will be back in action on January 5 this season when they visit newly-promoted Chinnor.

The Chapel Gate outfit, though, had three weeks off last month, with their return to action on December 8 marked by a demoralising defeat at lowly Lydney.

Dunn, who will be without shoulder injury victims Scott Chislett and Ben Featherstone for tomorrow’s clash at Chapel Gate, told the Echo: “We have played everyone once now and have six victories and eight defeats. We had aimed, realistically, for seven of each, so we’re broadly on target.

“The Christmas break is quite short this year as we only miss one weekend, so it will be busy, but the boys feel like they have had their Christmas break already when we had three weekends off in November.

“There are a lot of distractions at this time of year and we would rather be sitting at home on December 22, but we have proved there is nobody to fear in this league and we’ll go into the Worthing game feeling confident.

“Tomorrow will be a good measure of how much we have progressed since the start of the season. We have nothing to lose and it is all about what we expect of ourselves.”

Lions will hand a late fitness test to former London Irish star Ben Stevenson, who joined Featherstone and Chislett on the shoulder-injury treatment table last week.

Dan Connolly, meanwhile, returns to the squad after illness ruled him out of Saturday’s victory at Barking.

Dunn added: “Ben Stevenson trained on Tuesday so we are hopeful he will be fit, but we won’t see Scott Chislett until after Christmas now.

“Ben Featherstone’s injury is not looking as bad as we had feared so, hopefully, he will only be out for weeks rather than months.

Lions: (from) Pollard, O’Brien, Connolly, Edwards, Pearce, Stewart, Stevenson, Wiseman, Drake, Hardcastle, Carrel, Manning, Firetto, Andrews, Collier, Seward, Forrest, Hart, Grace, Cawley, Booth.