Islington Admiral United boss Jason Edwards regards his team as the underdogs in a potential three-way scrap for the Islington Midweek League title.

Admiral are currently four points behind Premier Division leaders Regent’s FC with a game in hand, while defending champions Cricklewood Wanderers are a further five points adrift.

But, although Edwards’ team are undefeated – and the only side to have dented the leaders’ 100 per cent record so far this season – he feels they are still outsiders in the championship battle.

“I wouldn’t write off Cricklewood – they are champions and they know what it takes to do it, while Regent’s won it two years ago,” Edwards told the Gazette.

“Although we’re not short of players who have won the league, like Kevin Duffy and Niko Muir, it’s been a while – and you’d have to say we’re the ones with the least pedigree at the moment.

“Ideally I’d love it to come down to us against Regent’s, if we can just keep in there. As long as we’re in the mix and in a position to push for it, I’ll be happy with that.”

Admiral return to league action on Thursday night when they take on West End at Market Road – their first game since a shock 2-0 defeat in the Islington Gazette Cup by the league’s bottom side Star of Kings.

“We’ve had a long break, now we need to get the cup game out of our system,” added Edwards, now in his second year since succeeding Sam Elishi as manager.

“That cup result shows that a side lower down the league can turn you over any time – there’s a good standard. West End are a good team, we have to keep it nice and tight and hopefully nick a win.

“Overall we’re very happy with the progress we’ve made. We’ve had quite a big squad with a nucleus of young lads who have all played for us since they were kids and that’s a good bond that keeps them together.”

Meanwhile, Ricky Lucas scored twice as Regent’s produced a strong second-half display to beat Regent Rovers 5-2 and extend their lead at the top of the table.

Regent’s raced into a two-goal advantage, but they were pegged back to 2-2 by Rovers at half-time before hitting three without reply in the second period.

As well as the brace by Lucas, Yemi Buraimoh and captain Darren Gray were both on target and Jesse Ndjeka also found the net with a penalty.

Regent’s take on Islington Borough on Thursday and manager Des Casey said: “That’ll be a tough test – they beat Cricklewood Wanderers 3-0 last week and we’re without a few players as well.

“It’s an intensive month of games for us, but now we’re top we’re trying to maintain that.”