Match Preview: Basingstoke Town vs Chesham Utd – Saturday 23rd March 2024

Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Basingstoke Town vs Chesham Utd
When: Saturday 23rd March 2024 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Chesham Utd (The Generals), Avg 2023-24 Home Att 557
With it being two weeks since our last league game, this should have hopefully allowed some much needed rest and for others players to regain fitness, as we head into our last eight games of the season. Tomorrow we host the runaway league leaders, Chesham Utd, who are close to confirming the league title.
We visited Chesham back in September last year, on a day where we started brightly, but failed to take our early chances, and then conceded two second-half goals, which mean’t we left Buckinghamshire with nothing to show for our initial good play.

Our Opponents
The Generals are jointly managed by James Duncan & Michael Murray, who have been in charge since October 2018. Prior to this they had jointly successfully managed Potters Bar Town to an automatic promotion from the Isthmian North Division 1 title in 2017. Duncan, had a 13-year playing career as a midfielder playing for teams such as Wealdstone, Uxbridge & Slough Town, whilst Murray, a striker previously played for clubs such as Northwood, Hendon, Uxbridge and Potters Bar.

As I stated above, Chesham sit top of the table fourteen points clear of second-placed Salisbury, with an impressive record of Pld 35 Won 25 Drawn 5 Lost 5, with 80pts. Their away record stands at an impressive record with 10 Wins, 3 Draws & 4 Losses. They also lead the league in goals scored with 72. Their leading goal-scorer is ex-Crawley Town and Hendon striker Ricardo German, who has thirty-two goals this season. German, played for Crawley for 3 ½ years. Chesham added striker Ogo Obi last October from Maidstone Utd, and as added eight goals, and previously played for Hanwell Town against us. Zak Joseph, has eight goals since joining from Hampton & Richmond. Ex-Stokie Jordan Edwards now plying his trade at Chesham has ten goals, eight in the league.

Their midfield ex-Hanwell Town captain Harry Rush, who joined the Generals and has an eye for a goal. Ryan Upward, joined in October from Farnborough, having spent nine years and 300 appearances at Maidenhead. T’Sharne Gallimore, is a British Virgin Islands player, is in his second stint at Chesham. Brad Clayton is an attacking midfielder, who has ben at the club since 2018.

In defence they have Connor Roberts who has added four goals from his defensive role. Roberts, spent four years at Banbury Utd before joining this summer. Another returning player to the Generals is Kieran Murphy, who joined from Hemel Hempstead, and is known for a player who has won promotion from all step 3 divisions. Lewis Rolfe, is a versatile defender who previously played for Hitchin Town. Callum Adebiyi, joined from St Albans City, and is easily adept at left-back or centre-back. In goal it will be Zaki Oualah, who joined from Weymouth in August. He has also played for AFC Wimbledon, and Algerian side US Biskra.

Our Basingstoke Town Side
The superb revival continued, with a battling performance at home to Hendon, coming from a goal-behind at halftime, three second-half goals, helped secure a 3-2 victory. A brace by Bradley Wilson, one via the penalty spot, and a neat finish by Paul Hodges (his first of the season), were our goalscorers, against a decent Hendon side.

We head into tomorrow’s clash in eleventh place with our record at Pld 34 Won 13 Drawn 7 Lost 14, with 46pts. Our home record continues to improve sitting at 7 wins 4 draws & 6 losses. Bradley Wilson’s brace now gives him nineteen on the season, which is six more than striker Dan Rowe, who is set to play a bigger role this weekend. Yet again Liam Ferdinand did the tough work up-top, and he neatly set up Paul Hodges goal as well. It is hoped that George Reid, may play a bigger part in this Saturday’s game, whist Stefan Brown played an hour in replacing the injured Ben Cook. Ashleigh Artwell could also be part of the matchday squad as well.

Paul Hodges continues to impress in his midfield role, replacing the loss of Michael Atkinson and now Ben Cook. I’m not aware of Simon Dunn’s fitness, so Luis Le Paih will sit beside Elliott Bolton, who made an impressive start in his first game for the club. D’Andre Brown could also earn a spot back in the match-day squad.

Depending on how aggressive we are tomorrow against the league leaders, we could wither go four across the back or play a five-man defence, using two wing-backs. Billy Upton is likely to retain the captains armband and will be partnered by Scott Armsworth if fully fit, or Shane Hollamby, who has impressed when available. With the extra week, I would expect Markus Johnson-Schuster to return to his role on the right, whilst Curtis Angell & Massimo Giamattei may battle out the role on the left.
Who else do we need but Simon Grant in goal.
And which position could the versatile James Clark play tomorrow afternoon?

Six wins in our last seven league games, we have nothing to fear of the league leaders, who will look to take another step towards the title.

It is amazing how far this club has come in recent seasons, so to state that the attendance (616) against Hendon, was slightly disappointing, is strange, but with the league leaders visiting Winklebury, plus an added bonus of fans supporting ‘Non-League Day’, it is hoped that we will have a bumper crowd tomorrow afternoon, for what could be a real entertaining game.

Match Preview by Martin French..