AFC TOTTON are counting the days to Justin Bennett’s return to action.

The 36-year-old strike legend has yet to play for the Stags since his summer arrival having sat out the whole of last season at Oxford City with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

The Stags - home to newly-promoted Western Premier champions Street on Saturday (3pm) – are not yet firing on all cylinders in front of goal and manager Louis Langdown can’t wait to name Bennett “the game-changer” in his squad.

“Benno goes to see the surgeon on September 12 and hopefully he’ll get the all-clear,” said Langdown. “It’s then how we drip-feed him into games and how comfortable he feels.

“He’s such a top, top lad. He trains with us, he sits on the bench with us during games and he can’t wait to get started. There can’t be many 36-year-olds who want to play as much as he does.”

The Stags had hoped to have Eastleigh loan striker Tom Bearwish more regularly available but he has missed the last two games and won’t feature on Saturday either.

“We’d hoped to have Tom at Hamworthy last week but Eastleigh didn’t want him cup-tied (in the FA Cup) and then we had him lined up to play at Blackfield on Monday but he got called back by Eastleigh because of their injuries,” Langdown explained.

With the Spitfires still struggling for players, Bearwish will almost certainly be on the bench at Harrogate Town in the National League on Saturday.

“It’s the price you pay when you’ve got a lad who doesn’t belong to you,” said Langdown.

“It’s not quite falling for us in front of goal yet, but it will come.

“Four points from three league games is not the start we wanted, but we are crafting opportunities and every game we’ve played so far could have gone either way.

“In my opinion we should have won at Blackfield (a 1-1 draw). It wasn’t a pretty game, but we did have chances before they got their penalty - and it was a penalty - and we had Dave Allen sent off.

“We kept two players up front and were still trying to win it with ten men, but Murphs (keeper Shane Murphy) made a hell of a save from Rudy Plummer and then Charlie Urry’s had a shot that skimmed off the top of our bar, so Blackfield could have won it at the death..

“That wouldn’t have been a fair reflection of the game, but that’s what happens if you don’t kill teams off.

"It will come good though. At least we're not scrabbling around for our first win or our first point like some teams are."

Unbeaten league newcomers Blackfield & Langley travel to Evesham United on Saturday having banked seven points from nine and conceded just one goal - Eddie Perrett's first-half header for Totton.

“They’ve got some good lads who keep plugging away and I dare say they’ll get some decent results,” said Langdown.

“Glenn (Howes, manager) sets them up very well and they’re not the easiest of nuts to crack.”