Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Dorchester Town vs Basingstoke Town
When: Saturday 28th December 2024 Kick-off 3pm
Where: The Avenue Stadium, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester. DT1 2RY
Dorchester Town (The Magpies), Avg 2024-25 Home Att 644
For those who were present in that unexpectedly sparse crowd yesterday, you would have seen one of our worse performances against a Marlow side, that lacked any real skill, but took two both chances (one via the spot), when they came along. This moves us to a quick turnaround as travel down to Dorset to take on Dorchester Town in the rematch from earlier this season, where we dominated in a 2-0 win, with goals by Liam Ferdinand & Nnamdi Nwachuku.
Our Opponents
The Magpies (Dorchester’s version that is), are managed by Tom Killick who is in his second season at the club, following twenty-year’s of managing at Poole Town. He will be assisted by Glenn Howes, and both Tom & Glenn played for the Stoke in the late 90’s. Both had worked together previously at Salisbury & Poole Town, before arriving at Dorchester.
Dorchester after an average start to the season, they now sit in fifth place, the last of the playoff places, with an overall record of Pld 22 Won 8 Drawn 11 Lost 3 GF 40 GA 26 and 35pts. Despite their fifth place and going unbeaten since the beginning of November, they have just two wins and nine draws in that period. Their Boxing Day game was a 1-1 draw at Poole Town. Their leading goals-scorers are Olaf Koszela, who has thirteen league goals (which includes three penalties). Koszela initially joined the club in January 2022 via a loan deal from Torquay, but signed a one-year contract at the start of the 2023 and now 2024 seasons. Shaquille Gwengwe, now has five league goals, and arrived from AFC Totton in June 2022 but has missed the opening games through injury, whilst They also signed the experienced Wayne Robinson who has won back-to-back promotions with Sholing then Salisbury. He has two league goals, and mainly starts on the bench. Another striker joining the Magpies is Luke Pardoe, who has three league goals, and like many others, he has played for Poole Town & AFC Bournemouth.
The midfield contains the returning captain Jordan Ngalo, whose career includes stops at Weymouth, AFC Totton & Aldershot Town. Another likely starter is Corby Moore, who joined towards the end of last season, after stints at clubs such as Bishop Stortford, Poole Town and Chelmsford. Wes Fogden returns to the club after a 15-year absence, where he spent time in League 1 & League 2 with AFC Bournemouth, Portsmouth & Yeovil, as well as playing for Havant & Waterlooville & Dorking Wanderers.
The mainstays from last season Jack Dickson & Ollie Haste will return to defensive roles once again. William Spetch, another ex-Poole Town player who is known for his midfield play, will once again play at the back. At centre-back will be ex-Eastleigh defender Tom Bragg, who won promotion with Salisbury. Ieuan Turner is another returnee in defence, and came through from their U23 side. Another former Poole Town player is left-back Harry Hutchinson, who was at the Dolphins the last couple of seasons, and scored his first goal of the season on Boxing Day at Poole.
Noah Crisp was the keeper in the early games, but Gerard Benfield has now taken over the role, and won the November Player of the Month award for the Magpies. Benfield, previously spent time with Weymouth, Salisbury & Wimborne.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
Although our unbeaten remains, and is extended to three games, our winning run came to a rather weak finish against a poor Marlow side, in the drab 2-2 draw. Many supporters I spoke to thought we were lacklustre for a lot of the game, that seemed scrappy and lacked any real control for large parts of the game. Brody Peart’s goal, his second in two games, was largely down to a poor goalkeeping effort, whilst our penalty conversion the second of the game, as we missed one ten minutes earlier, was confidently put away by James Clark, who should now be the designated taker moving forwards.
The draw allowed us to remain in seventh place, our record now Pld 21 Won 7 Drawn 9 Lost 5 and 30pts. With some possible changes in defence, the strikeforce could see a change, if we decide to go with a less attacking set-up tomorrow. Liam Ferdinand, Brody Peart & Robbie Gallagher should start tomorrow, whilst George Reid & Nnamdi Nwachuku will be pushing for starts too, or are likely to join Dan Warre on the bench.
The midfield were not at their best yesterday, and this could give Sam Deadfield the chance to win back his starting role. Again if we go more defensive tomorrow, then we could put an extra player in here, so alongside Rudy Allen, and potentially Deadfield, you could see D’Andre Brown & Ben Cook earn starts. Fans would love to see Luis Le Paih, get a start, but Dan is likely to use him of the bench when needed once more.
The defence could be the big worry, as both Billy Upton (hamstring) & Curtis Angell (head), could miss tomorrow’s trip to Dorchester. If this happens, then the back four if we go that way, will be Marcus Johnson-Schuster on the right, Aleks Kokoszka on the left, leaving Jack Ball & James Clark to partner-up in the centre-back pairing. As usual Simon Grant is our No.1 and will be between the sticks once more tomorrow.
Our home form against lower opposition has not been good recently, so it will be interesting to see how we match-up against a team in the playoffs. It could and I hope the performance and effort put in at Winchester, but Dorchester will see yesterday’s result, and will be all-out for three points.
As always, the Basingstoke faithful will wing it’s way down by train and car tomorrow, so if you can’t make it why not tune-in to Nick Wilson’s excellent radio commentary and see how your Stoke side get on.
Match Preview by Martin French..
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