Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Basingstoke Town vs Havant & Waterlooville
When: Saturday 20th September 2025 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Havant & Waterlooville (The Hawks), 2024-25 League Finish 6th
Whilst others in our league were playing FA Cup matches, we sat idle last Saturday, and have not played since our Hampshire Snr Cup win at Fareham Town. Three days prior to that, in the league we lost 1-2 at home to Hungerford Town.
Our results last season against the Hawks were not the best as they comfortably did the double over us. In November 2024 we lost 5-1 at Westleigh Park, whilst in February we lost 0-3 at Winklebury.
Our Opponents
The Hawks continue to be managed by Shaun North, who joined the Hawks in a new role from neighbours and now EFL Championship side Portsmouth FC after working in John Mousinho’s EFL League One title winning side last campaign. He brings a wealth of experience to the Hawks possessing in surplus of 20-years coaching with Pompey across multiple spells amongst other coaching and Management experience.
The Hawks currently sit one place above us in fifteenth place with a record of Pld 6 Won 2 Drawn 1 Lost 3 and 7pts. Last time out in the league they defeated Plymouth Parkway 1-0 at Westleigh Park, with a goal just past the our by their captain Ryan Seager. Their away record sits at one draw and two losses, with the draw (3-3), last time out at promotion hopefuls Sholing. Their leading goal-scorer is once again striker Ryan Seager who has five league goals, having come through the set-up at Southampton which is where he would stay until 2019. Having featured for the Saints U21 side from 2012. He had loans spells at Crewe Alexandra in 2015/16, then 6 months with MK Dons in League One scoring 4 in 22 appearances. He had spells at Yeovil Town, and Dutch side SC Telstar, but more recently at Hungerford Town & Dorking Wanderers, before returning to Havant at the end of 2023. Striker Evan Giwa-McNeil (22), joins the Hawks this season, having previously been with Enfield Town, Ethan spent some time on loan with Baldock Town on a return to England following a spell playing in the USA. Experienced Harvey Bradbury is also back for another season. Nana Owusu is another attacking player known to older Stoke fans, who played for the club from 2014 to 2018, and has since played for Maidenhead Utd, Oxford City, Dulwich Hamlets and more recently Bracknell Town and Walton & Hersham.
The midfield returns a number of players from last season, starting with Alfie Whittingham, who has found the net three times this season. With him is Nigel Atangara, who returned last season, ten years after he left for Portsmouth. In that period he played in France & Spain, as well as Leyton Orient, Cheltenham and others. The club also recently signed Olly Pendlebury, who was on-loan last season from Farnborough. Josh Dockerill, 19, came through the academy with Portsmouth where he has developed his trade under Hawks Head Coach Shaun North, but was snapped for the 2024-25 season. AFC Bournemouth product Lewis Brown, has played for other clubs such as AFC Totton & Salisbury before joining the Hawks.
In defence they the returning Brendan Willson, who was an U19 player at Eastleigh joining Eastleigh’s Development Squad from Wimborne Reserves. Now 20, he signed for Havant in June 2024 for the upcoming season. Harvey Laidlaw, 18, is a product of Portsmouth FC’s academy set-up and made the switch to the Hawks last season. In the summer of 2023, Harvey joined Southern League Premier South outfit Gosport Borough on loan for the first half of the campaign. Reuben Austin, 19, played his youth football locally with Portsmouth before moving to Worthing’s Under 18 set up. Devante Stanley, will likely set-up at right-back, having stepped into senior football with Bedford Town in 2018 and has since played for St Neots Town, Royston Town and Biggleswade Town before making the step up to the National League South with St Albans City in 2020. In goal will be Ben Dudzinski, who started his career with Durham City before joining then EFL League Two side Hartlepool in July 2016. Ben had a short-term loan spell with Darlington before he joined Lowestoft in July 2017. He was brought back to the club after a previous spell in 2018/19. He has also played for Dartford and more recently Eastbourne Borough.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
We head into this match with a chance for our injured players to have regained some fitness and hopefully play some part in this Saturday’s match. Liam Ferdinand was to his best against Fareham, not only his overall play, but he also scored and created one of the other goals. Bradley Wilson also played a more significant role in the win, and will look to get back on the scoring sheet tomorrow. It is assumed that Charlie Austin, is injured once again and will miss tomorrows game. This leaves Robbie Gallagher as well as George Reid (who should be able to play whilst recovering from his broken hand), the other starting options up front. Joel Rollinson is another good option here, and pushing for another start.
Our starting midfield, can now be any three from five players, as Connor Barratt who had missed a couple of games, put in a strong performance in the Fareham cup game. James Dickson, is a likely starter, and Josh Green has to many fans, put in strong performances whenever he has played. The same can be said of Ben Cook & D’Andre Brown. A lot for our Manager to ponder on who to start tomorrow.
The defence will need to be at its best tomorrow as they try and handle the goal-scoring threat of Ryan Seager. With that the centre-back partnership is unlikely to change if Jack Ball has recovered from his knock against Hungerford, and will partner our captain Billy Upton. Scott Armsworth who has impressed when he has played is another candidate here. The defensive back roles look to be unchanged with Markus Johnson-Schuster on the right, and Elliott Legg on the left. Ben Jefford is close to a return, and could look to get his first minutes of the season, if he makes tomorrows matchday squad. It is assumed Joe O’Loughlin, is still on his road to recovery from injury. In goal will once more be Simon Grant having
Other options are James Clark, who can and has played in many positions across the pitch, assuming he is not out on dual-registration playing for Reading City.
Having not won since our opening game of the season, tomorrow afternoon would be a perfect time to pick up all three points, against a team, that it’s league position currently belies the talent in their squad, and therefore we will need to take our chances when they come along.
Match Preview by Martin French..
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