It could be make or break for St Austell today as they bid to keep their title ambitions alive in the Jolly's Drinks Cornwall Premier League.

The mid-Cornwall side are mid-table and take on leaders Paul today knowing that defeat would virtually rule them out of the running with less than eight weeks of the season remaining and the two sides not scheduled to meet again in the league

"We're not going to win the title if we don't beat Paul; it's a game that we have to win," said St Austell skipper Sean Hooper, whose side are fifth in the table, nearly 50 points behind the pacesetters.

"If they beat us we're not going to be able to catch up 49 points without playing them so they're in a great position and credit to them, for that.

"We're in striking distance and if we beat them we're back in the race but I'd rather be in their position than ours."

Hooper will select from 14 players following a month of injury disruptions and is now worrying over the availability of key all-rounder Mike Bone.

"He's playing really well and it's a major concern if he can't play; we'll leave it as late as possible to make some decisions," added the captain.

Paul meanwhile overcame another major obstacle last week when they won at Truro by 17 runs but skipper Justin Stephens acknowledges that the pressure to perform will continue to mount.

He said: "It wasn't one of our better performances but to win when you're not playing well is a good sign and we stuck at it.

"We're obviously confident having won at St Just and Truro.

"We need to concentrate on our next two matches at home and getting everything we can out of them."

Stephens suffered a fractured knuckle on his bowling hand last week while fielding but played through the pain and was only made aware of the severity of the injury after X-rays on Tuesday.

He is confident however that his bowling will be unaffected today and selects from a full-strength squad.

Truro, will be kicking themselves for self-destructing – needing 25 off eight overs with four wickets in hand they contrived to come up short against the leaders, and skipper Tom Sharp's mood will not have improved following another batting failure in the Vinter Cup final defeat to St Just on Wednesday.

The City club travel to Penzance today while St Just, now with a seventh consecutive Vinter Cup in the display cabinet, head for Newquay, with their Pirates full-back Rob Cook still able to concentrate on cricket ahead of the rugby season.

The North Coast club are second from bottom but have drawn 39 points clear of basement club Penzance and will now be looking up rather than down.

Werrington and Falmouth will be involved in an important match at Ladycross today.

Seventh-placed Falmouth hold a three-point advantage over their opponents going into today's match having secured a winning draw when the sides last met in mid-June but fresh from last week's 79-run defeat against Grampound Road.

Falmouth skipper Duncan Ayres said: "It's the first game we've lost for a while so we're not too downhearted about it. Saturday is a big game for both sides and we know Werrington are a strong side so we'll have to play well to get anything out it." Greg Stephens drops to the twos.

For Werrington, the season so far has been a disappointment and skipper Ben Smeeth is looking for an improvement. He said: "We did well against St Just last Saturday and we beat Paul a couple weeks previous to that but we've struggled against teams towards the bottom. It's not going our way and we know we should be higher in the table."

Werrington are unchanged from the side that got the better of last week's drawn match at Cape Cornwall Road.

Grampound Road meanwhile will be looking for their sixth successive victory – having not lost since May – when they entertain Callington today.

The two are riding high in third and fourth respectively but Callington know they missed the chance to move into the top three by managing only a draw against Penzance last week.

Next Tuesday evening meanwhile the W T Edwards Cup Final takes place at St Austell between the Hawkey Cup winners St Austell and the Vinter Cup winners St Just starting at 5.45pm.