CRADLEY will put their proud unbeaten home record on the line when they host local rivals Birmingham at Monmore Green tonight (7.30pm).

The Heathens have been in tremendous form on home shale in 2016, winning each of their nine meetings in all competitions.

They have not lost a meeting at Monmore Green since August 2011 – but team boss Will Pottinger knows they will need to be at their best to overcome the table-topping Brummies.

He is anticipating a nip-and-tuck encounter in the fight for local bragging rights, although he is backing his side to come out on top.

“It’s going to be a very tight meeting where I’m sure every point will be vital,” said Pottinger.

“We’ll be treating it like any other meeting, we’ll take one race at a time and hopefully come out on top after 15 heats.

“Birmingham are a very strong team, they’ve been having a great season so it’s going to be a tough meeting without a doubt.

“We’ll need contributions from everybody and we’ll need to be at our best, but we have a good record at Monmore and we’re certainly capable of keeping that going.”

The Heathens warmed up for Monday’s huge encounter by finishing fourth in the National League Fours at Coventry.

They snuck into the final on 14 points, finishing just one ahead of Mildenhall to claim second place in Group A.

But they were only able to manage seven points in the final as Rye House claimed a well-deserved victory.

Pottinger admitted they were disappointed not to regain the trophy, but he was keen to focus on the positives after a solid display.

He added: “Of course we would have liked to have won, but first and foremost we wanted to get through to the final so at least we achieved that.

“We just threw a few points away in the final and it wasn’t to be unfortunately. There were some positive aspects from the day which we’ll look to take into tomorrow.”

CRADLEY: Max Clegg, James Purchase R/R, Luke Chessell, Richard Andrews, Ashley Morris, Ben Basford, Bradley Andrews.

BIRMINGHAM: Liam Carr, Danyon Hume, Darryl Ritchings, Tom Bacon, Tom Perry, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn, Jack Smith.