Scott RUSCOE believes his mean New Saints side can make a statement about how good they can be when they travel to Connah’s Quay Nomads tonight.

The TNS boss, whose side hammered Scottish League Two outfit Elgin City 4-0 in the Irn-Bru Cup on Saturday, make the short trip to Deeside to face a Nomads side in good form.

TNS, who haven’t conceded in the league since the 5-2 opening-night horror show at Bangor City, will return to the Welsh Premier League summit with a win and Ruscoe insists that’s incentive enough for his players.

“This is a chance for my version of this team to make a statement,” said Ruscoe.

“It’s a grass pitch – whether they’ve rolled it or even cut it, who knows? They’ve probably trained on it to give them an extra edge.

“We don’t mind playing on grass despite being on 3G all the time but it would be good to go to another team’s pitch and produce a good performance and hopefully pick up a victory.

“It lays down a marker – it would take us back top of the league and that’s the incentive.

“I’ll be looking to make only slight changes tonight because of the importance of the game and how well we did on Saturday.

“We’ve had a shape for the past few games but we looked at it yesterday to see if we’ll use it again tonight. There might be one or two changes for tonight but no more than that.”

Nomads are currently in fourth place in the WPL, having won five of their opening seven games, scoring 10 goals in the process and conceding two fewer than TNS’s five.

Ruscoe thinks his back four will be in for a tough test against a side who work hard for each other, but expects them to come through.

He added: “Connah’s Quay have started really well and are only a point behind us.

“They’re a strong, physical side who are well organised and don’t tend to change the team a lot.

“There’s plenty of unity there and those lads play for each other – Andy Morrison’s a good coach and he sets his teams up well. They don’t play out from the back and they’re very direct.

“Nomads don’t score a lot of goals but what they do comes from set-plays so we have to be wary of those, especially as they are home.”

The game kicks off at 7.45pm.

n TNS fans are reminded the weekend’s clash with Prestatyn Town at Park Hall will be a day later, on Saturday at 2.30pm, instead of Friday, because of the re-arranged clash with Nomads.

MORE TNS NEWS n Page 71