Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Basingstoke Town vs Swindon Supermarine
When: Tuesday 10th August 2024 Kick-off 7.45pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Swindon Supermarine (The Marine), Avg 2023-24 Home Att 298
Basingstoke Town opens it 2-24-25 home campaign this evening, as we host Swindon Supermarine, in what’s expected as goals galore We had back home
Last season, we met the Marine on three occasions. Firstly in October during a torrential downpour in the FA Trophy, we left with a dominant three-nil victory. A week later we hosted them in the league and ended up four-three winners in a see-saw match, as Liam Ferdinand found the winning goal. Then in April in a midst of losses, we were outplayed for most of the game and deservedly lost three-nil in Wiltshire.
Our Opponents
The Marine will once again be managed by Stuart Fleetwood, whose playing career as a striker, includes a string of clubs (some on loans), which started via the Cardiff City’s youth scheme, before playing for clubs such as Redditch Utd & Merthyr Town. He initially joined Supermarine as a player coach in 2017-18 season, but then took on the coaches role at Yate Town, before returning to take on the Manager’s role last season.
Last season, Swindon escaped the drop with a last game three-nil victory at home to Winchester City, which allowed them to finish in sixteenth place with an overall record of Pld 42 Won 13 Drawn 10 Lost 19 GF 73 GA 92 and 49pts
The Marine started their 24-25 campaign on Saturday, with a 2-1 home loss to Sholing, despite holding a halftime lead, two second-half goals for Sholing sent them to defeat.
Their strike-force starts with David Sims-Burgess who scored fifteen times after joining in November from Taunton Town, including twice against Stoke. Alongside him will be another experienced and well-known player to Basingstoke fans in Michael Fernandes. His CV of clubs includes Farnborough, Colchester Utd, Salisbury, Dartford & Hampton & Richmond, before joining from Hayes & Yeading last March, where he scored six crucial goals to help keep Swindon up. Another striker is Harry Williams, is experienced striker, who started is career at Cheltenham Town at the age of 9, playing a few times in the league for them before moving onto Farnborough, Evesham Utd & Gloucester City. He joined Supermarine in the 2022-23 season scoring a massive 37 goals, before moving onto Gloucester City, and returned to the club in February of this year. There’s also Zach Kotwica, joining the Marine 2020, after playing for a number of clubs (many on loan), such as Gloucester City, Salisbury, Tamworth, Cirencester, Bishops Cleeve.
Their midfield saw Toby Holland join them in July from Bishops Cleeve, where he scored twenty goals last season, and was Marine’s goal-scorer three days ago. Jamie Edge, has been at the club the past six seasons, having joined from Gloucester City. He has also had spells at Hereford Utd, Weston-Super-Mare, West Bromwich Albion and was brought by Arsene Wenger to Arsenal from Cheltenham Town. Liban Ibrahim is regarded as a box-to-box midfielder having joined at the start of last season. He had stints at Paulton Rovers and joined via Yate Town. Young Gabe Reivers is in his second year at the club, but did not get a league start last season.
In defence will be Ryan Campbell, who will also captain the side. Campbell has been at the club since December 2016 and also has strong attacking qualities. Sam Turl is in his second season at the club and is a solid defender, who likes to support the front players. He has played for a number of clubs and joined from Yate Town. Nick Peare, is in second stint with the Marine having been at the club for the 2010-11 season. He has played for a number of clubs since, but more recently at Yate Town and then Cirencester Town, where he joined Marine last month. Peare, will be one of the two centre-backs tonight. Another experienced defender is 32 year-old Jake Lee. Like many other players he has spent time at clubs such as Cirencester Town & Weston-Super-Mare, and also previously played for Marine in 2020-21. Originally a striker, he is now a central defender. Alex Hallett is another defender who joined in pre-season from Corsham Town, prior to that Frome Town.
Their keeper will be Luke Purnell, who joined in June this year. Purnell, now 34, signed for Weston-Super-Mare in 2013-14 and made 355 appearances, before joining Bridgewater Utd last season. He then joined Marine in June 2024.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
Just seventy-two hours ago, we left Bolitho Park with all three points after what was a highly successful last hour of the game. We started slowly and were fortunate to be only one goal down at the half-hour mark, as we finally started coming into the game. It was man-mountain Billy Upton’s header back towards the goal that allowed Dan Warre to knock it into the corner of the net. From then on, apart from a couple of Parkway attacks, it was Stoke who looked the more assured, and the tenacity of Jonny Efedje, allowed him to give us the lead, before our fifth change Liam Ferdinand, neatly set-up Rudy Allen, who made no mistake from six yards out. Three goals from three new players, was an unexpected but great start to our season.
Sitting in third place, we now host Swindon Supermarine, and Manager Dan Brownlie, already has a number of options/decisions to make on how and who he wants to start tonight. With the understanding that Nnamdi Nwachuku will be out for through the injury sustained at training last Thursday, this means Dan Warre will likely be up top, and depending on how we set-up, either Jonny Efedje, Robbie Gallagher or Liam Ferdinand, could be alongside him. We also mustn’t forget that George Reid could earn a start as well.
The midfield will once again be led by Simon Dunn, and Max Smith & Alfie Bridgman certainly looked good in the second-half. Ben Cook was one of the first changes so unless we give Flynn Bolton, Luis Le Paih or Paul Hodges a start, then the starting line-up could be the same as Saturday.
The defence yet again saw Billy Upton be influential in attack as much as in defence, as he dominated the Plymouth defence three times from corners, once in creating the equalising goal. At the back we needed to dig deep and were outplayed for some time down the left. Once this was corrected we reduced Parkway to just two or three half chances in the second-half. Again unless we decide to make changes, the line-up will be the same as Saturday, with Markus Johnson-Schuster on the right, James Clark & Billy Upton in the middle, and Curtis Angell on the left. Note Angell not only made some timely tackles in the second-half, he also started some decent attacking moves as well. Those waiting for a chance are Scott Armsworth, Massimo Giamattei and young Aleks Kokoska.
In goal will be Simon Grant, a Stoke fan favourite, and reliable as they come.
We appear to have an abundance of options, but with upto seven people on the bench and five substitutes, it gives us lots of options and opportunities.
Despite Swindon having had a poor pre-season and last Saturday’s loss to Sholing, this is a very experienced Swindon Supermarine side, and all results should be ignored, and we will need to be at our best to secure the points.
As always your support can help make all the difference.
Match Preview by Martin French..
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