Fakenham Town are sweating over the fitness of leading scorer Rory Harper for the Boxing Day derby against Swaffham.

Harper suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury in training this week, but Ghosts boss Wayne Anderson is hopeful the striker will be fit to face the Pedlars at Shoemakers Lane (11am): “I’m hoping with a couple of days’ rest and a training session on Thursday when our physio can give him some more treatment, then a few more days until the game, that he will be okay,” said Anderson.

The Ghosts, who lost 2-0 in a friendly against Gorleston this week, go into the festive encounter on the back of a win and a draw in the league.

Anderson is keen to disover more consistency after a patchy first half to the season: “Gorleston are a Premier Division side and they were very accomplished, but we matched them and that is us all over – we seem to play well against the better teams, but drop points against the sides around us in the table.

“The points are there for us in the next few games and that could lift us into the top eight, which is a position Fakenham have not been in for the last few years. We do need a bit of consistency though.

“Neil Jarvis has a great bunch of under-18s who are knocking on the first team door and in terms of youngsters it’s looking very promising for the future.”