Basingstoke Town vs Wimborne Town
When: Saturday 9th August 2025 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Wimborne Town (The Magpies), 2024-25 League Finished 12th
Well we open our 2025-26 campaign with us hosting Wimborne Town, who we split our results, with both teams winning on home soil. Stoke defeated the Magpies in mid-December, after trailing by an early Wimborne goal, we responded with two second-half goals, a headed finish by Jack Ball, and that well-known D’Andre Brown free-kick finish. Then in April in not the most eventful of games, a questionable penalty decision, saw the home side go onto win by that solitary spot-kick finish.
Our Opponents
The Magpies (Wimborne’s version) are managed by ex-Basingstoke player Tim Sills. Sills who made nearly 700 appearances in his 20-year playing career, scoring 219 goals. He had two stints at Basingstoke, making a 181 appearances, scoring 57 times. His other clubs included Aldershot Town, Oxford Utd, Stevenage and Torquay Utd at National League and League Two levels. He was appointed manager of Hamworthy United in October 2019 and guided the Wessex League Premier club to promotion to the Southern League as league champions, and FA Vase Semi-final in the 2021-22 season. He joined Wimborne in October 2022, and then they won the Southern League Division One title two years ago.
Following last season’s creditable finish, Wimborne have had a decent pre-season with five wins and a draw, and thus will look to push for a playoff place this season. Finishing with an overall record of Pld 42 Won 15 Drawn 12 Lost 15 and 57pts. They were however the fifth lowest goalscorers in the league with just forty-nine goals. Returning is striker well-known Will Fletcher, who rejoined last season, having spent periods at Poole Town, Hamworthy Utd and Dorchester Town. They made a number of additions to their strikeforce including Max Bustamante, who was a Chilean international at youth levels, has played at step 3 for teams like Berkhamsted and Sholing last season. Lewis Williams joined the Magpies in June after a breakthrough season at Andover New Street, having come through Eastleigh’s academy. Young Joe Ryan made 12 appearances for The Magpies during the first half of 2024/25 alongside being a part of Eastleigh’s Elite Development Squad, having made some appearances for the Spitfires. He then went on loan at Fareham, helping them win the league playoffs, before signing permanently in June for Wimborne. Joe Smith is another striker who has scored numerous goals initially at Downton FC, where he scored an impressive 68 goals, before joining Bemerton Heath Harlequins where scored 23 goals in just 28 games, finishing as the Southern League Division One South’s fourth top scorer.
The midfield starts with Cameron Munn having rejoined Manager Tim Sills from Hamworthy Utd in October 2023. Also returning is Scotsman, Josh Carmichael signed just over a year ago, was capped by Scotland at U16 and U19 levels, and made four appearances for the Cherries after coming through their academy. He has also played for Gosport (including the 2014 FA Trophy final alongside Tim Sills at Wembley), Poole, Salisbury, Torquay, Weymouth and Totton. Ben Scorey, joined from Eastleigh, but missed the 2022-23 season after suffering a serious leg injury-23 season. Fully recovered, he is the longest-serving player in the squad, and can play full-back, central defence, and defensive midfield. New recruits include 35-year-old Josh McQuoid, who brings a wealth of Football League experience, with an impressive playing CV including the likes of AFC Bournemouth, Millwall, Burnley, Peterborough United, Coventry City, Luton Town and Stevenage, as well as earning five caps for Northern Ireland. He joined the Magpies in June 2025 after spending six of the past seven seasons at Weymouth. Seung-Woo Yang is a South- Korean born player, who was raised in Bournemouth and was part of Southampton academy, before joining Forest Green Rovers then Eastleigh. He spent 2024/25 at Sholing and Bemerton Heath Harlequins before signing for The Magpies.
The defence returns the main body of its players from last season including their captain Sam Jackson, who is in his third season at the club having spent time at Poole Town, Bashley and Dorchester. Drew Eccott-Young will also be back for another season. Drew has previously played for Hamworthy United where he won “Young player of the season“ under Tom Sills. He then made 23 appearances for Dorchester before joining the Magpies. Owen Roundell has also rejoined the club after making over 300 appearances for Sholing. Billy Walker is another defender back for another season and is regarded as a hard-working central defender having been captain for both Christchurch & Hamworthy United before joining the Magpies. Sam Roberts, a central-defender also re-signed who previously playing for Salisbury, Gosport & Winchester City.
In goal it is likely to be Cameron Plain who joined the club last February after spending time at Poole Town. His back-up will be Ben Rodwell, who has been at the club since October 2022.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
Well we kick off our second season in the Premier Division South after the last day huge home win vs the League Champions Merthyr Town, which allowed us to move out the relegation places to finish in fifteenth, with a final record of Pld 42 Won 11 Drawn 15 Lost 16 and 48pts. The 4-0 win over Merthyr improved our goal difference, finishing 62 goals for, 64 against. With this we have made moves to improve our strikeforce, with the early re-signing of our goal-scoring dynamo of two years ago Bradley Wilson. He will join Liam Ferdinand and of course our very latest signing from today’s announcement, Charlie Austin. Attacking wingers George Reid, and Robbie Gallagher are also back to supply the front-men. We have also added attacking winger Joel Rollinson, who has a wealth of experience at National League South and Football League level, having played for League two side Stevenage Town. He more recently played for clubs such as Weymouth, Eastbourne Borough, Hungerford Town and Stevenage. We also signed Alex MacAllister, but it appears he may be back on dual registration with Alton on occasions.
The midfield returns the likes of James Dickson, Ben Cook and D’Andre Brown, and also the later quality signings of Connor Barratt & Josh Green to strengthen this area. Connor has probably been our brightest player in pre-season. It will be interesting to see who will win the starting positions here.
The defence returns fairly untouched as Billy Upton returns as the captain of the club, and will be partnered by Jack Ball once again. Scott Armsworth is a worthy back-up depending on how we set-up and Markus Johnson-Schuster and James Clark will also be fighting for starting places. We then replaced the loss of Curtis Angell, with ex-Stoke left back Ben Jefford. Adding to this area, was ex-Frome defender Joe O’Loughlin, who could play a wing-back role, and then yesterday’s signing of defensive back Elliott Legg who has a wealth of experience at this level.
In goal will be once more be the well-liked and reliable Simon Grant for another season.
We look forward to our first game, knowing that last season’s record against the top six was fairly impressive, whilst against teams in the bottom half was the main reason we finished where we did.
But this is a new season, with new hopes and expectations, and three points at home in front of an expected big crowd, in some part to see Charlie Austin.
Match Preview by Martin French..
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