Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Basingstoke Town vs Bracknell Town
When: Bank Holiday Monday 31st August 2026 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Bracknell Town (The Robins), 2026-27 Current Position 12th
Saturday’s battling performance, saw our two-game unbeaten run come to an end, in a game we dug a hole in after twenty minutes, and despite a valiant fightback, it was an ultimate loss to Taunton Town.
Tomorrow we face one of our rivals in Bracknell Town, where last season, we split the points, with both teams winning on their own grounds. Firstly, on the road, back in August 2025, we were on the wrong end of a 3-2 loss, then at Winklebury in January of this year, a goal by Tom Blake was wiped out by an equaliser just before halftime. However a second-half goal by Rudy Allen, gave us all three points in a 2-1 win.
Our Opponents
The Robins who have made numerous management and organizational changes in recent years, are currently managed by Adam Hopkins who was appointed in July. Hopkins was manager of Yateley, and had led them to promotion into step 5 football, before jumping ship. He previously managed both Sandhurst Town and Holyport.
After an opening 7-0 thrashing by Plymouth Parkway, they have picked up two wins, including Saturday’s 3-1 defeat of Sholing. Their other win was a 3-2 victory against Gloucester City. This leaves them in twelfth place, with a record of Pld 5 Won 2 Drawn 1 Lost 2 GF 7, GA 12 and 7pts. Their away form obviously contains their 7-0 loss but also a 2-1 loss at Yate Town. Another understanding of Bracknell Town, is the non-stop signing and releasing of players, everytime a new manager arrives.
Their leading goalscorers are striker Reuben Bartlett-Antwi, with three goals, and Adam Liddle with two. Bartlett-Antwi, has bounced around numerous non-league clubs, more notably Slough Town, Dulwich Hamlet, and Enfield Town in recent seasons. Adam Liddle is another striker, who scored twice against us last season, whist playing for Farnham Town, and previously played at clubs at our level, as well as Reading, Eastbourne Borough & Chelmsford.
Bracknell’s current side also contains two ex-Stoke players from last season, in winger Joel Rollinson, and midfielder Dara Dada.
Other Notable Midfielders are Harry Cooksley, another Farnham Town player Harry Cooksley, who previously played for Hartley Wintney, Reading U18, QPR U18’s, and also spent time at Aldershot Town & Farnborough Town.
Their defence contains CJ Fearn, who signed from Uxbridge in August. Fearn has over ten years’ experience at Steps 2 & 3 of the football pyramid, and a massive influence in Uxbridge’s promotion season. It also contains the Stepney brothers Jordan & Ross. Jordan, who can also play in midfield, has played for Gosport Borough, Farnham Town and Uxbridge, while Ross has had experience at Westfield, South Park and Leatherhead.
The one player who we played against in our last clash against Bracknell in January is their goalkeeper Zaki Oualah, who was previously at Farnham Town and was a huge part of Chesham’s promotion campaign in 2023-24.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
Basingstoke return to Winklebury, after us being on the wrong side of a seven-goal thriller, losing 4-3 to a strong attacking Taunton side. Two quality finishes, with an equally good finish by Miles Obodo in between, were our scorers on the day. Both Blake & Obodo lead our goalscoring chart with three goals each on the season.
The loss pushed down to eighteenth at this early stage, with our record at Pld 5 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 3, GF 9, GA 11 and 4pts. Our strikeforce will hopefully still contain on-loan Miles Obodo, and he will be partnered with
Jeremiah Okine-Peters and Christos Papkonstantinou, who both set-up goals last Saturday. Finn Evans, currently appears to be the odd-man out in this area, and has only been given small amounts of playing time in recent weeks as a late substitute. Still no sign of a return for either Cheick Sylla & Romanian Andrei Chiriac.
Whilst Tom Blake is the current star of the team, he can only do this because of the hard work that Louis McGrory puts in each week. Both he & Alex Solomon put in a big shifts here at Taunton, especially with the team down to ten men. D’Andre Brown continues to be make a noticeable difference as an active substitute, and was a major part of our fightback Saturday. James Henry also continues to be active substitute in recent games. I had hoped Amardeep Singh, may have made the subs bench on Saturday, but could have been held out for today’s matchday squad. No clear update on the returns of Lloyd Snell & John Adebiyi.
Defensively we were not at our best Saturday, and this was not helped by the injury to Billy Upton, and it is expected he will miss today’s game. This leaves one or two decisions to be made here. Sulayman Ceesay’s unfortunate red card Saturday, will not affect his playing status today, and he will now likely be partnered by Bernie Tanner in the centre. Casey Bocarro continues to hold off incoming Jonathan Gjoshe on the right, whilst Joe O’Loughlin holds down his role on the left. However, there could be a shift in positions to accommodate any necessary changes required. Scott Armsworth is still working his way back to game fitness, whilst both Jack Ball & Ben Jefford are likely a few weeks away from a matchday squad. Simon Grant will don the goalkeepers gloves later today.
The battling ten-man fightback may have taken it’s toll on one or two players with just a 48-hour turnaround, but this side continues to show resilience as per Saturday’s second-half performance.
What is expected today, is Basingstoke looking to get a second win of the season, in what is expected to be a tough game, against a team we clearly do not get on with, and thus the game will likely be played with a high intensity, throughout the ninety minutes.
With Louis McGrory likely to be wearing the captains armband today, it will need a big push from all eleven Stoke players to get us over the line for an important big three points.
Let’s Go Stoke !
Match Preview by Martin French..
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