Match Preview: Southern League Premier Division South
Basingstoke Town Vs Poole Town (Remembrance Day Game)
When: Saturday 9th November 2024 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Poole Town (The Dolphins), Avg 2024-25 Home Att 705
Yes another draw, but this one was more satisfying for the travelling Stoke supporters, as we stood toe-to-toe against the league leaders Gloucester City.
This is our first match-up against Poole Town this season following us doing the double over them last season, winning 4-2 at home and then 1-0 down in Dorset in February this year.
Our Opponents
The Dolphins are managed by Steve Tully, who has a long footballing career as a right-back for a number of clubs, starting with Torquay Utd, then spent two stints at both Weymouth & Exeter City. His managerial career started at Truro City, then helped out at Plymouth Argyle & Bristol Rovers, before taking up his role at Poole Town this year.
Poole sit in tenth place as we face them this Saturday with a record of Pld 14 Won 5 Drawn 4 Lost 5 and 19pts. With just fourteen goals, they are one of the lowest goalscoring teams in the league. Their away record is 2 Wins, 3 Draws & 2 losses. Their leading league goalscorer is the well-known Tobias Holmes, who has four league goals after netting 22 goals in 44 appearances for the Dolphins last season. Holmes did spend some time at Poole in his earlier part of his career, but his goal-scoring resume took off when he joined Wimborne Town in the summer of 2016 where in a three-year stint he scored 132 goals from just 143 appearances. Young talented striker Tom Hewlett signed for Poole for the 2024/25 campaign after turning down a professional contract at Burton Albion. Winger, Tyler Forbes signed for Poole Town in 2021 and has also had spells at Weymouth and Shaftesbury. He spent the majority of the 2023/24 campaign in the u23s, but with new a new manager in place he has been given a chance to step-up. Forbes plays internationally for the British Virgin Islands who are aiming to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Forward Rafa Ramos is expected to miss the trip to Winklebury due to injury.
Their midfield contains their captain, Jake McCarthy, who has two league goals, and has had an extensive career at step one and step two, playing over 150 times in the National League South and making almost 50 appearances in the National League for Weymouth and Havant and Waterlooville. Antonio Diaz signed for the Dolphins from Gosport Borough where he spent the 2023/24 season. Having come through AFC Bournemouth’s academy, he has had stints at Weymouth, Dorchester and Wimborne Town, Diaz joined Salisbury in 2020, before moving onto Bashley and then Gosport Borough. Harvey Slade is a 6’4 box to box midfielder who provides aerial threat, having started his career at Bashley, he joined on loan from Weymouth during the 2023/24 but agreed a contract with the Dolphins for the 2024/25 campaign. Billy Lowes, started his career at Poole as a 17-year-old, before spending time at AFC Totton and then five years at Dorchester. Like others in this team, he was picked up whilst playing at Bashley. With a number of injuries to players such as Charlie Davis, they have added left-footed winger, 22-year-old Dario De Luca to the side, who scored four goals for Stansfield this season. He started his career in Millwall’s youth academy and has also spent some time in the youth setup of Greek side Olympiacos.
Josh Staunton is an experienced centre half who has over 200 National League appearances at the age of just 28. His journey as a footballer started at Gillingham before moving to Dagenham & Redbridge in the 2016/17 season. He then spent time at Woking before joining Yeovil in 2020, before moving on to Boreham Wood, where he joined the Dolphins in February. Jamie Whisken is a fan favourite, who joined from AFC Totton, and has made almost 500 appearances for the Dolphins over a span extending ten years and has captained the side for the majority of that time. Harry Thomas is another centre-half that joined Poole Town following his release from Peterborough United at the end of the 2023/24 season. In 2023, Thomas had loan spells at AFC Totton and Northern Premier League side Corby Town. Oakley Hanger is a right sided defender who signed for the Dolphins from rivals Wimborne Town in early June of 2024. Hanger was part of a Wimborne squad that achieved promotion to the Southern League Premier South. In goal will be 22-year-old goalkeeper joined us for the start of the 2024/25 campaign following his release from AFC Bournemouth. A promising young goalkeeper who is known for his shot-stopping ability and his fantastic distribution, and was at the Cherries since 2018.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
An amazingly open first fifteen minutes, saw us hold onto a lead for just three minutes, as Nnamdi Nwachuku’s jink past two players and strong finish inside the box, was wiped out and honestly we could have gone behind over the following few minutes. We then dug in and despite the odd scare, we more than matched the league leaders and had three good chances to take all three points in the final few minutes. Having said that it was our third draw in a row and eighth of the season, as our record now sits at point pushed us back into fourth place, but an eight-point gap between the top three teams. Our league record now sits at a draw heavy Pld 14 Won 5 Drawn 8 Lost 1 & 23pts. The downside to this worthy draw, was that Nwachuku hobbled off injured and is likely to miss out for this Saturday’s game. The loss of Nwachuku, leaves our leading goalscorer Liam Ferdinand as our main strike threat, but is likely to be supported by on-loan winger Brody Peart, as our other striking threats Dan Warre & Jonny Efedje both missed the trip to Gloucester, and their status tomorrow is unclear. Our other winger George Reid also appears to be unlikely to be part of the match-day squad as well as the injured Robbie Gallagher.
The midfield will be headed by Sam Deadfield & the effervescent Rudy Allen. They are likely to be supported by either D’Andre Brown who showed his improved quality at Gloucester, or the experienced Simon Dunn or Max Smith. As reported elsewhere Flynn Bolton has been part of the Kingstonians squad for the past two games, so whether he will return is also unclear. Further rumours around a possible return of Luis Le Paih strengthen, so it would be no surprise to see him in a Stoke shirt tomorrow afternoon.
Our defence put in another determined performance last week, and after that early onslaught coped with Gloucester’s attacking threat pretty well for the rest of the game. I see no reason unless illness strikes that the back four wont’ be the same as seven days ago. Thus Markus Johnson-Schuster will patrol the right, Curtis Angell on the left, and the centre-back pairing of captain Billy Upton & Jack Ball, should be on the teamsheet. If we switch to a form of a back five, then James Clark will be the option there. 17-year-old Aleks Kokoszka more than earned his vault into a more attacking role last week, following Nwachuku’s injury, but he took a knock in the midweek academy game, and thus his presence in the squad could be unlikely. Josh Grant is also an option here. The goalkeeping gloves will be worn by Simon Grant once more tomorrow afternoon.
The well-earned point at Gloucester, still leaves us without a win since Hanwell, and Poole Town are unlikely to care about our injury situation, as they look to claim a scalp off one of the playoff teams, so this will likely be a very close battle for the points tomorrow.
With it being our ‘Remembrance Day’ match it would be good if as many fans as possible could be in place by 2.50pm so that this important occasion and ceremony can be observed with the required dignity.
Match Preview by Martin French..
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