BOSS Karl Gormley says everyone is “itching to play” again as Worcester Raiders get back on the pitch tonight against Dudley Sports at Malvern Town’s HDanywhere Community Stadium (7.45pm).

Raiders have not played since February 8 but will finally get back to football this evening after hiring Malvern’s artificial surface for the fixture due to Claines Lane being waterlogged.

Gormley expressed his frustration at not being able to play in recent weeks and said the weather has affected the team.

“The rain is wrecking us a bit at the moment,” he said.

“It’s just all-round frustrating for everyone, players and coaches, as there is physically nothing more we can do.

“The system we have in place to drain the (Claines Lane) pitch seems to be working at the minute but it is an ongoing worry that any more rain will cause the pitch problems.

“We had a new fixture list come through last week and we are going to be playing pretty much Saturday and Wednesday for the rest of the season.

“Luckily now we have the floodlights so at least we can play games during the week instead of having to fit games in at weekends which is what we have had to do in the past."

Despite the weather causing havoc with the fixture list Gormley and his assistant manager Chris Cornes remain focused on the football and still harbour ambitions of a top-four finish.

Tonight’s game against bottom of the league Dudley represents the start of a decent run for 11th-placed Raiders.

“Chris and I had a chat last week and we looked at the fixtures coming up,” Gormley said.

“The distance between us and fourth place is 13 points but we have a lot of games in hand and lots of home games coming up.

“Fourth place is our target so that’s what we’re going for ­— that final promotion spot."

With Claines Lane being unplayable for the last few weeks it is an ongoing concern that the pitch does not cope well in these conditions but despite everything Gormley has been pleased with the players' attitude.

“It’s no secret that the pitch (at Claines Lane) doesn’t handle the rain well at all,” he continued.

“We’ve been forking it and working on it ourselves recently and last weekend we had to give up our weekend, which isn’t ideal, to try to help the drainage.

“Obviously there is a lot of work going on there and the focus is trying to develop it into a facility we can use so that is the priority at the moment.

“Training has been difficult at times but we have been on the artificial surface so we have at least been able to train regularly through this spell.

“But the players have been great, they’re working really hard and everyone is just itching to play again now so we’re looking forward to tonight.”