Match Preview: Bet Victor Division One South
Basingstoke Town v AFC Totton
When: Saturday 18th January 2020 Kick-off 3pm
Where: The Simplyhealth Ground, Hillier Way, Winchester. SO23 7SR
AFC Totton (Nickname – The Stags), Average 2019-20 Home Attendance 233
As I write this preview, the rain outside is once more pouring down, and yet again the saying should be “Well cometh a home game, cometh the rain”, as we look to play a hugely important game this Saturday against relegation battlers AFC Totton.
With our mid-week home game against Thatcham Town falling foul of the weather, we face a team one place above us and who are showing a decent run of form.
The Stags are on a three-game unbeaten run, which included goal-less draws against promotion chasers Winchester City and Larkhall Athletic. The other was 0-3 win at lowly Moneyfields. That means three clean sheets, in a row.
Sitting in 18th place, with a two-point lead and a game in hand of us, their overall record now sits at PLD 19 WON 4 DRAWN 5 LOST 10 GF 27 GA 40 PTS 17. Their away record sits at 2 Wins, 3 Draws and 5 losses. This means they pick up points away from the Snows Stadium, 50% of the time, something that we would love to achieve.
Their leading goal-scorer is 27-year-old forward Craig Feeney with 7 goals. Feeney, rejoined the Stags in 2019 from Winchester City. Fellow forward Silvano Obeng (24), has four goals.
As for your Basingstoke side, we not only won on the road for the first time this season last Saturday, we also kept our second clean sheet of the season, our previous was the goal-less draw at this weeks opponents back in September. That game was Manger Dan Brownlie’s first game in charge of Stoke and an early penalty-save by now departed keeper Chris Rackley was one of few highlights that day.
Our record still sits at PLD 20 Won 4 Drawn 3 Lost 13 GF 28 GA 56 with 15pts.
Assuming no-one picked up any injuries at Tuesday or tonight’s training, then Manager Dan Brownlie is likely to have close to a full squad of players to select from this weekend.
With that in mind it would be difficult to see any changes from last weeks impressive effort. The one change could be as per my Moneyfields preview, the switch between the posts as Aaron Watkins may be wearing the No.1 jersey this week.
However, with the rain continuing to fall I suggest all fans keep an eye out on the Forum, club website and twitter pages for any planned pitch inspection.
If the game does fail to take place, this will mean we have three home games, Moneyfields, Thatcham Town and AFC Totton that will need to be re-scheduled.
Match Preview by Martin French..