ANDY MORRISON insists that it “doesn’t make any sense whatsoever” for Connah’s Quay Nomads to be a point clear of The New Saints.

Nomads have shown themselves to be very real challengers to Saints’ dominance of the top-flight, which has seen the title head to Park Hall for eight successive seasons.

Saints are title favourites given their full-time status and greater playing budget, but Nomads welcome Scott Ruscoe’s men to the Deeside Stadium on Friday night with the advantage.

Regardless of the outcome - both on Friday and in their bid to wrestle the title from Saints’ grasp - Morrison believes his Nomads deserve great credit.

“There’s no way, whatever happens, that this season should be tainted in any way,” said Morrison.

“We’re going up against a club in TNS who have twice the budget of the rest of us - the likes of ourselves, Barry and Bala.

“For us to be a point ahead of them going into this game, doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

“That’s testament to the staff and players and their desire to take one game at a time and to win games of football. We showed that in Europe at the start of the season, we’ve won the League Cup and we are still in the Welsh Cup.”

Nomads could well have been heading into tonight’s clash with a healthier lead over Saints, who beat their title rivals 2-1 last month at Park Hall in controversial circumstances.

“It’s got the makings of a great game,” said Morrison. “It will be fiery and thankfully we’ve got a top referee in Lee Evans, who is probably the most experienced referee in the league.

“It pleases me that we’ve got someone who will make big decisions after big decisions went against us at Park Hall. On any other night it’s a 2-1 victory for us and they are down to 10-men, it’s as simple as that.

“It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because now we should be sat seven points clear with the chance to go 10 points clear, that’s how big that game was.”

Revenge will be high on Nomads’ wishlist, while Morrison feels the Saints’ squad should be giving him a post-match present.

“We are looking forward to the game and I imagine every TNS player is rubbing their hands,” he said. “Like I’ve said, they should be buying me a bottle of Champagne because I’m making them feel like footballers again.

“This is what football’s about. It’s not about winning the league by 25 points, it’s not about the title being won by February.

“Football is about competing, finding out how good you are, seeing how far you can dig when you have to and then the excitement and feeling after that is euphoric. That’s what real footballers, real men, want out of their football, they don’t want things wrapped up by the middle of February.”

Morrison feels the Welsh top-flight are slowly but surely finding out what Saints’ boss Ruscoe is about. The former Chester City midfielder described his side’s 1-1 draw at Bala Town as “men against boys”.

“I think everyone in the league is now getting used to the comments coming out on the back of pressure and on the back of drawing or losing games,” said Morrison.

“When I think about the last eight years I’ve been in the league and I think about the quality of players that Bala have, the manager and the togetherness they’ve had and the quality of players, like Chris Venables, who has been the outstanding player of the last decade, and they are being described as boys.

“It’s absolutely appalling and I spoke about it earlier in the season down at Barry. I made a comment about the disrespect and I think everybody has now seen it and everyone is mentioning it.

“To describe Bala as boys and the dismissive remarks made afterwards, that is not what this league is about and it surprises me.

“I’ve known the players at TNS and the core players that were there back to when Craig Harrison was there. These are top players and I’ve never seen that arrogance in them to describe other teams in the way the manager does.

“We can only look after ourselves, hear what’s been said and be surprised by what’s been said.”

Nomads’ first step in looking after themselves is to continue their fine home record.

Morrison’s men are yet to lose at home this season - their most recent defeat against TNS on March 9 last year - winning 13 of 16 outings in all competitions, scoring 43 goals and conceding just 11.

“We are in a really good space,” said Morrison.

“We are causing teams so many different problems at the minute, especially on our own pitch, where we’ve got nine wins and one draw in our last 10 games, scoring 27 goals and only conceding six.

“We are in an incredible run of form at home and that bodes well for the future.

“It’s going to take a very good team to come here and beat us because we are doing so many things right and we look so dangerous in so many areas.

“It’s up to the opposition to come and try to stop what we are doing so well.”

Jay Owen will miss tonight’s clash through injury, with Declan Poole rated 50/50 with a hamstring problem picked up in the 4-0 win over Caernarfon.