MARK Danks does not have particularly fond memories of his time at Kettering Town.

The Worcester City striker spent three months on loan from Forest Green Rovers at Rockingham Road at the end of the 2004/05 season.

During that time, he scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Droylsden in the Nationwide North play-off semi-final.

Unfortunately for the Northamptonshire side, they went on to lose 3-2 to Altrincham in the final, ultimately missing out on promotion to the Conference.

Despite that crucial strike, Danks' loan spell was not welcomed with open arms by Poppies' fans.

After spending that campaign's pre-season with the club, Danks ended up joining Forest Green when a deal to sign him permanently at Kettering fell through.

To add insult to injury, he also scored against Kettering in the same season during another loan spell, this time with Stafford Rangers.

Danks, who netted twice during City's FA Trophy win at Barrow in mid-week, joked: "They hate me!"

But he added: "I wasn't very good down there to be honest because I hadn't played a game for so long and I wasn't match fit."

Danks, though, holds no fear of returning to his former club when City travel there for a crucial Nationwide North encounter on Boxing Day.

And he believes his current team have got what it takes to get a result ahead of the return fixture at St George's Lane on New Year's Day.

"It will be a good game," he said. "They are a big club and they get good crowds.

"I think it will be a huge test for us to get a result, but we are capable of doing that, especially away from home. We have got a strong squad."

Danks, who has scored eight goals for City this season, also wants to see the team bounce back from the disappointment of losing their last league game 2-1 at home to Leigh RMI.

"We had a great spell before the Leigh RMI game," he said. "Losing that match was below our standards. No disrespect to them, but we are a better side and we should have won the game.

"They are games we need to be winning if we want to win the league and it was three points dropped."

He added: "It's a funny league. A team can beat Droylsden or Kettering one week and then lose to a team at the bottom the next."