Match Preview: Basingstoke Town vs Melksham Town Saturday 19th October 2019

Match Preview: Bet Victor Division One South

Basingstoke Town v Melksham Town (The Town)

When: Saturday 19th October 2019 Kick-off 3.00pm

Where: The Simplyhealth Stadium, Winchester, RG22 6EZ

Well following Monday’s FA Trophy draw, we now have back-to-back matches against Melksham Town.

Following Tuesday night’s 2-0 win for Bristol Manor Farm at Bideford Town, The Farm moved off bottom place upto 14^th place, whilst dropping Melksham to 15th and us down one place to 19th.

Melksham known as the ‘The Town’, are managed by Richard Fey, and visit Winchester having drawn two and lost one in their last three league games. This included a worthy 1-1 home tie against high-flying Thatcham Town, a 1-1 draw at Cinderford and 0-1 home loss to Evesham Utd. This shows that in recent weeks they have tightened up their defence from the original flow of goals.

Their overall league record stands at PLD 8 WON 2 DRAWN 2 LOST 4 GF 13 GA 18 with a total of 8pts.

Their 13 goals scored have been spread around between 6 players and forward Jack Ball (signed from Paulton Rovers) has 5 of them. Luke Ballinger who has played in various positions this season has 4 goals. Ballinger is also an assistant coach for the team. Newly signed forward Phil Ormrod has 2 goals and is just one of a number of players who previously played for local team Street.

Like us they play in yellow, but are expected to be wearing a lovely all green kit this weekend.

As for Melksham’s cup exploits this season, they lost in a replay to Western League Shepton Mallet and of course after last weekend’s 2-0 FA Trophy home win against Wantage Town, they will host us on Saturday 26^th October.

As for your Basingstoke Town side, the unbeaten league and cup run now runs to five matches, and although Bristol Manor Farms mid-week win, leaves us in a precarious position, the doom and gloom has started to lift around the club.

The young playing squad are now building confidence which is invaluable at this level of football.

Our league position of 19th place with a record of Played 9 Won 1 Drawn 3 Lost 5 GF 10 GA 16 with 6pts. Along with us both Barnstaple and Sholing have 6pts, whilst AFC Totton and Willand Rovers sit above with 7pts.

Last Saturday’s goal scorers Ben Cook, Riccardo Andrady and Zach Robinson are expected to be part of what could be an unchanged line-up this Saturday.

Forward Ben Wright according to sources is doubtful for this week after struggling through Tuesdays’ training session and could be better getting 100% for the cup game a week Saturday.

Aaron Kuhl will look to enhance his performance from last week and I hope that those who saw him have just seen a glimpse of his potential.

With Jordan Edwards looking more like the player we saw pre-season each week, Manager Dan Brownlie now has tough decisions, when he looks to name his starting line-up and that can only be a good thing.

We have now scored in all five home league performances, and I see no reason why our speed and skill, along with improved finishing in recent weeks, will change that trend this Saturday.

Whatever happens, we know we have the re-match next week and both Managers will learn from this Saturday’s match.

But this Saturday is all about the league and a chance to get up the table and out of the relegation zone.

Therefore take the trip down the A33 this Saturday, and get behind Dan and more importantly your team.

Match Preview by Martin French..