Ritchie Jones believes City can conjure up the spirit of Southend and upset League Two’s hottest team on Saturday.

Torquay’s amazing run of seven straight wins has powered them into the third automatic promotion spot – and level on points with Paul Sturrock’s top dogs.

Tuesday’s victory at Cheltenham was their fourth 1-0 result on the bounce and they have only conceded one goal in the last nine home games.

City have the division’s second-worst record on the road with just one win but that was against the leaders. So midfielder Jones refuses to be ruffled by the trek to fortress Plainmoor.

He said: “Anyone can beat anyone in this league, even those at the top of the table. We went to Southend and beat them so we can approach every game the same.

“We’ve been to League One teams in the cup and got results so it won’t faze us. We’ll go down there feeling positive and hopefully we can pick up more points.”

Jones stepped in against Port Vale after David Syers was ruled out with a back spasm and he delivered a hard-running display to push his claims to stay in the side for the weekend.

He said: “There’s a lot of competition but that keeps you on your toes. You’ve got to perform in training day in, day out and make the most of it when you’re selected.

“I’m not sure how much ground I covered but I was trying to help the full back out a few times. You’ll have to ask the fitness coach!

“Everybody put a shift in. We knew it was going to be tough on the pitch and it wasn’t the prettiest of games.

“But we dug in until the end and Davo (Andrew Davies) put his head in where it hurts to get us the goal. He’s so good in the air and when we threw him up front, we knew there was always a chance he’d get on the end of something.

“We never gave up and it would have been majorly disappointing not to come away with a draw. Some times you’ve got to play ugly and we got the point to take into the next game.”