The unfortunate injuries to Charlie Davis and Rafa Ramos have denied us some of our attacking threat but new signing Dario De Luca has shown that he is more than capable of making a significant impact on our season.

Last season, which was the first at this level for Basingstoke, we lost both home and away matches. We went down 4-2 away in October and we lost 1-0 at the Black Gold in February. Basingstoke finished the season in 12^th place which would have pleased them after being promoted the season before.

‘Stoke are currently in 4^th place, but seven points behind Merthyr Town, AFC Totton and Gloucester City who jointly top the league all on 31 points. They have become the draw specialists in the league having drawn eight of the 14 games that they have played so far this season. In fact, they have drawn their last three matches, Gloucester City 1-1 away, Swindon Supermarine 2-2 away and Hungerford Town 1-1 home. They have lost only one match, 2-0 at home to Taunton.

They play in front of an average home crowd of just under 700 and have won 3 drawn 3 and lost one at the Winklebury Football Complex.

They are managed by Dan Brownlie who was appointed in 2019 succeeding Martin Kuhl who he served as assistant. In fact, he had served the previous three managers as their assistant before being given the top job. He has a great deal of experience in non-league football and managed Hartley Wintney prior to joining Basingstoke. A former Reading youth team player, Brownlie spent nine seasons with Hartley Wintney as a player, coach and joint-manager, enjoying back-to-back promotions from the Sydenhams Football League (Wessex) Premier to the Southern Premier Division

The club were delighted to be able to retain the experienced striker Liam Ferdinand for the upcoming 2024/25 season. A player who we have come up against on many occasions in recent seasons. He joined ‘Stoke back in October 2023 and scored 11 league goals for the club last season. He has already got 8 goals from 15 appearances this season.

’Stoke boss Dan Brownlie said at the time “In Liam we’ve a proven and consistent goal scorer but his abilities go far beyond just that. He made a big difference when he came in midway through last year; and whilst his output was always good, I know he’s hungry for more and that’s a really exciting prospect.”

There’s no doubt that Steve Tully will have taken a long look at the footage from the defeat at the weekend and put into place a plan to get us back to winning ways. Our away support has been fantastic this season and I’m sure the lads will be grateful for more of the same on Saturday.

Enjoy the game

Neil Wellington.