Ahead of their Twenty20 clash against South Tamworth at Riverside 1, Tom Groth has bestowed the competition leaders with one of sport’s biggest compliments – “the pressure is on them” maxim.

No one was playing mind games with City at this stage last season. You could say that after years of struggle, they have finally arrived.

Groth, Souths’ wicketkeeper, said: “They’re under a lot of pressure, because their club hasn’t won a trophy for a long time now. And this is probably gonna be one of their best opportunities that they’ve had in a very long time [to claim silverware]. So the pressure’s on them, actually.”

Alternatively, one could say the pressure is on Souths. After a strong start to the year, in which they initially kept pace with City United at the top of the ladder, Souths have lost three straight matches to drop to fourth on the ladder, almost 20 points behind City.

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Souths, who claimed the one-day title when the final against City was washed out, are winless and last after two T20 rounds.

Groth said Souths were “looking forward” to the challenge of trying to halt City’s run of six consecutive victories, heading into the Christmas break. “It will be a big challenge, though,” he said. “They’re a good side. We'll have to turn up and play well.”

Souths get a big boost this weekend with the return of Groth’s NSW Country teammate Tom O’Neill. The tall quick missed the first two T20 rounds.

And while Groth admitted that Souths had a “few guys struggling a little bit for form”, he was confident that would be corrected. 

O’Neill also expressed confidence that Souths “should rebound nicely”. 

“We’ve got a good enough team to [do that],” he said, adding: “We’ve got a good balance of younger players and older players.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Old Boys and North Tamworth meet at Riverside 2, while West Tamworth and Bective East clash at No.1 Oval – the latter a gala day starting at 10am with fourth grade. First grade is scheduled to start at 7pm.