It was no great surprise that our New Year’s Day clash with The Magpies was postponed after the storms and gale force winds left the referee with no real choice.
We now turn our attention to our home fixture on Saturday when we welcome the players, officials and supporters of Bracknell Town FC. We started the season at the SB Stadium, Bottom Meadow with a 0-0 draw on August 10th.
The Robins are currently in 7th place in the table (P22 W7 D11 L4 32 points) and come into the match on the back of a 1-1 draw at home to Basingstoke on Wednesday. They must have thought that they were going to suffer their 3rd home defeat of the season until a 92nd minute own goal earned them a valuable point. They are 9th in the league form table, P6 W2 D2 L2.
Their away form has been good with just two defeats in nine. They lost to Hanwell Town early in the season and then went unbeaten away from home until Boxing Day when they went down 2-0 at Walton & Hersham.
The Robins have suffered play-off misery for the past two seasons. In 2022/23 they finished runners up to Weston Super Mare but lost to Truro in the playoff final and last season they finished in 5th place and lost to AFC Totton in the play-off semi-final. Top scorers in that campaign were Jordan Espirit on 22 and Joe Grant on 19.
On September 12th Bracknell confirmed the appointment of Jon Underwood as the new first-team manager. He is an ex-player and has gained a great deal of non-league experience in the London area. On his appointment he told the club website: “I’m honoured to join such a proud club with a rich history. I’m eager to get started and work with the current talented squad, and staff, and also look to bring in some new faces. I believe together we can achieve great things.”
Top scorers for the Robins so far this season are Joel Rollinson 6, Haydon Vaughan 5 and Sam Ashton 4.
The gap in fixtures for us was a little disappointing but with a few players suffering knocks it gives them more recovery time. Our last three performances have been very encouraging with a real sense of teamwork beginning to emerge. We hope that spirit will continue into this important fixture. We are currently in 17th place in the league (P22 W6 D7 L9 25 points) but as we know things are very tight and a couple of wins will push us right back up into the mix.
Our strike force of Rafa Ramos on 4 goals, Ezio Touray 3 and Tom Hewlett 3 are looking much more cohesive and likely to put away the chances that are coming from mid-field.
So, its still all to play for and a home win on Saturday will give us just the lift that we all crave.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.
