Match Preview: Bet Victor Division One South
Bristol Manor Farm v Basingstoke Town
When: Tuesday 10th March 2020 Kick-off 7.45pm
Where: The Creek, Portway, Bristol, Gloucestershire. BS9 2HS
Average Home Attendance 2018-19 – 171, 2019-20 – 166
Nickname – The Portwaymen First Team Kit – Red Shirt, Red Shorts, Red Socks
Well we head into this reverse fixture against Bristol Manor Farm, with the game in serious doubt as it was understood that the mouth of the River Trym, has burst it’s banks and has flooded the ground behind one of the goals. Manor Farm are saying that they are confident the game will still go ahead, but let’s wait and see on this!
We head into this game after a well-earned point against Willand Rovers. We originally played Manor Farm back in Winchester towards the end of last November, where we fell behind early, and ended up 1-3 losers on the day.
Bristol Manor Farm head into this match-up having failed to score in their last four league games, two of these games resulted in goal-less draws, whilst the others were just one -nil defeats.
Prior to that they had beaten Thatcham 1-2 in Berkshire.
The Portwaymen are managed by Lee Lashenko and his side currently sit in 15th place with an overall league record of PLD 27 WON 8 DRAWN 6 LOST 13 GF 31 GA 44 PTS 30.
Their home record currently sits at 3 Wins, 4 Draws and 6 Losses.
Having scored less league goals than us, like us their leading goal-scorer is hardly setting the world a light, as midfielder Jordan Metters has 6 goals, two of those coming in the game against us. Both Joseph Tumelty with 5 goals and Lewis Bamford 4 both appear to have moved on, leaving Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist with 3 goals.
In fact they have failed to find the net 12 times this season!
As for your Basingstoke side, we can take a lot from our hard-working performance on a very heavy Winchester pitch, and new signee Connor Lynch gave us a new dimension upfront that we have been missing all-season. His power, aggression and go for goal attitude showed on Saturday and his equalising goal was a mirror of that style of play. The fact he had a goal disallowed and a shot kicked off the line in the first-half, and then went close in another breakaway in the second-half, bodes well for the rest of the season. Many Stoke fans will be looking for him and George Hallahan to forge a striking partnership that will net us a few goals in our final 11 games.
If the game goes ahead, our midfield and defence will have to battle under extremely muddy and sandy conditions, and an effort put in last Saturday, will be needed tomorrow night.
We still sit in 19th place with a record of PLD 27 Won 5 Drawn 4 Lost 18 GF 34 GA 76 with 18pts.
Our Away record sits at 1 Wins, 2 Draws, and 7 Losses.
On the injury-front, midfielder Simon Dunn went off injured last Saturday, and I’m hoping the rest this week will have him available for the Bristol Manor Farm game
In midfield we had some hard-working performances from Harrison Cliff, D’Andre Brown and Ben Cook. They were backed-up by Claudio Herbert who covered an awful lot of ground, when he seemed to forget what position he was actually playing.
Defensively, apart from another poor goal given away, we kept Willand Rovers at bay for most of the game.
If the pitch passes whatever pitch inspection’s required, we know like all our games, it will be a tough game, but with their current goal-scoring drought, we need to be at our best at the back, and take our chances for once when they come along.
Match Preview by Martin French..
English 
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