EBBW Vale will strive to get their Premiership title push back on track when they welcome basement outfit Maesteg to Eugene Cross Park tomorrow with head coach Pat Horgan warning they can not afford any more slip-ups.

The Steelmen lost their second league away game on the spin when Cross Keys turned them over last Saturday, a defeat that knocked them from top spot in the table.

Their home form has been good on the whole, defeat to Swansea on the opening day of the season the only blemish, and they need to keep it that way if they are to harbour hopes of challenging Neath and Cardiff.

"We have got to win and I would like to think we have enough in our bag to do that with a bonus point," said Horgan. "But Maesteg are a tough bunch and I am expecting a similar type of challenge to the one we faced at Cross Keys.

"We can either stand back and try and hang on in there or we can meet their hunger and aggression head on. They were perhaps a bit unlucky not to win here last season so we can't take anything for granted.

"Last week was an extremely disappointing result and it was just one of those games that you have to win if you want to win league.

"We have slipped up at Cross Keys, Glamorgan Wanderers and Maesteg now and that means we are relying on Neath and Cardiff slipping up as well."

Vale will be without skipper John Bowd, a useful man to have in a battle up front, because the flanker has been laid low with a virus all week.

With number eight Rhys Williams out for a few weeks with the shoulder injury he picked up at Keys, wing Simon Hunt's knee injury set to be monitored by the England sevens medical team and Rob Lewis away with the Dragons in Scotland, it has been a disjointed camp in training this week.

"It's been tough because we have been down to the bare bones in training," said Horgan.

"It is far from ideal but you look to the experienced players to lead the way and hope that the quality that I feel we have comes out on match day."

Will Thomas skippers the side in Bowd's absence and moves from lock to number eight while Centre James Lewis, wing Andrew Bevan, flanker Nio Aiono, lock Matthew Griffin, hooker Mathew Williams and prop Marc Jones all return.

Dragons academy flanker James Thomas, 17, is on the bench.

Ebbw Vale: A McLaughlan,J Williams, J Lewis, A Bramwell, A Bevan, M Delore, B Shelbourne, I George, M Williams, M Jones, M Griffin, N Edwards, J McPhail, N Aiono, W Thomas (captain). Replacements: R Lewis, K Owen, A Lott, R Wilkes, W Jones, J Thomas, AN Other.