Match Preview: Evo Stick South Premier Division South
Basingstoke Town v Harrow Borough
When: Saturday 26th January 2019 Kick-off 3.00pm
Where: The Camrose, Basingstoke. RG22 6EZ
After the loss at Merthyr Town last Saturday and this week’s postponed game at Chesham, we return to the Camrose to play the reverse fixture against Harrow Borough.
We met Harrow Borough on a warm November night and somehow despite being the far better team for most of the match and missing many numerous chances, we left Earlsmead Stadium without any points. On that night And possibly Jack McKnight’s last goal for our club we led 0-1 at halftime, only for that lead to disappear within two minutes of the restart. Ryan Moss got that goal and then added a further goal on 65 mins and yet despite more missed late good chances we lost 2-1.
Harrow Borough are managed by Steve Baker and the Boro took part in the only game of the week as they snatched a point at Poole Town with two goals (90 & 93mins), in a 3-3 draw.
They sit in the last promotion playoff slot (5th), with a record of PLD 27 WON 13 DRAWN 5 LOST 19 PTS 44. They are the league’s leading goal-scorers with 67 goals, but have allowed 55 goals, so they are a very entertaining team.
Their leading goal-scorer is Dylan Kearney who added 2 goals on Tuesday, and now has 17 league goals on the season and without doubt is their main threat this Saturday. Their other main goal-scorers are Ryan Moss with 12 league goals and Anthony O’Connor with 8. Other goal-scorers to watch are midfielders Frank Keita and George Moore.
Basingstoke still sit in 20th place, and with a current record of PLD 24 WON 8 DRAWN 4 LOST 12 PTS 28. With just 42 league goals we are scoring an average of 0.75 a game less than Harrow, and that simply needs to change.
With our current precarious league position, and with some influential players injured, Martin Kuhl hasn’t sat idle and has brought in players who are likely to start or figure in Saturday’s game.
With Sam Argent still serving his 3-game suspension, the remaining two Sam’s, Smart & Deadfield need to be on song Saturday and they will get the back-up of incoming ex-Eastleigh midfielder James Granger and up front, Ben Wright will be supported by an expected fit Aaron Redford and the returning Manny Williams. I’m sure Manny will get a warm welcome from the Camrose faithful.
We have been playing a 3-5-2 formation recently and are likely to stick with that, as I think we need to win the midfield battle as well as let our wingbacks attack when necessary.
Still no sign of a new defender putting on a Stoke shirt, so the defence is unlikely to be changed much from last week.
Will Zidane Akers get a start, or will they bring him off the bench if needed?
Let’s be clear this Saturday’s game will be far from easy against a free-scoring Harrow team, but probably more important is the fact that we need to create better chances than last Saturday, and actually put them away this time against Harrow.
Odds please Ian, when you get a chance.
Match Preview by Martin French..
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