Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Walton & Hersham vs Basingstoke Town
When: Saturday 21st February 2026 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Elmbridge Xcel Centre, Waterside Drive, Walton-On-Thames, Surrey. KT12 2JP
Nickname – The Swans, 2025-26 Curr League Position 1st
Despite recent good performances, a late Poole goal, followed by a very late penalty miss, means the 1-2 loss now extends our winless streak to a worrying six games. The disgraceful scenes caused by the Poole Town players and staff on the pitch last week, was a bad day for Non-League football and all that it represents, and any repercussions are still to be understood.
After playing third-placed Poole, we now head the short distance into South-West London, to take on the clear leaders, and probable league champions Walton & Hersham.
We played Walton at Winklebury back at the end of November, and despite a good start, a long-range shot, put us behind at the break, Two further goals second-half goals from Walton, saw us lose 3-0.
Our Opponents
The Swans have made a number of managerial changes this season, and currently Jakub Pietrzak is the present incumbent, taking over in December. He was an assistant coach for a year, before stepping up, and previously spent time with Millwall as a first team scout.
With Walton’s midweek 4-0 victory at Plymouth Parkway, they hope they have turned a corner on a run of indifferent results, but still hold a nine point lead and a game in hand over Poole Town & Gloucester City. Their overall record sits at Pld 29 Won 21 Drawn 4 Lost 4 and 67pts. Their home record is an impressive 12 wins, 2 draws and just 1 loss. Their strikeforce starts with Dawid Rogalski with twenty-one goals. He left Poland as a child, and was part of Maidenheads academy, before returning to play in Poland, before returning to England, and played for Chalfont St Peter, where we first faced him, then at Marlow, before joining the Swans in 2024. Jack Wood, is another striker, who has fourteen goals, who spent time at Kings Langley, and joined from Southend Utd, after spending three years with the Shrimpers. Francis Amartey, had five goals with Bracknell Town, before leaving and joining the Swans, has added one goal since arriving in early January. Mekhi Savage is on loan from Wycombe Wanderers, but his month-long loan may be up this week.
Attacking midfielder Johl Powell has now notched seventeen goals and has National League experience, with Maidstone, Dulwich Hamlets & Dover Athletic. Anis Nuur, who is in his second season at the club and has two league goals. Nuur, previously had two spells at Hartley Wintney, as well as stints at Met Police, Westfield and Cray Wanderers. Belgium-born Lucas Defise, is in his second season with the club, after spending time at Eastbourne Borough prior to that. Mason Obeng is in his second season with the Swans, and now has six goals, having previously played for Aldershot Town. Another midfielder is ex-Stokie, Elliott Bolton who had a short stint with Basingstoke, before returning to Weymouth then Bracknell. Originally aa a central-midfielder, he has also played in defence, and has added two goals recently for the Swans.
Their defence will be led by their long-term captain Joey Jones, who recently inked an extended contract with the club has a wealth of experience, starting in the youth ranks of Arsenal, Leicester & Yeovil, before switching between Woking and Yeovil over a four year period. He has since played for clubs such as Eastleigh, Dagenham & Redbridge, before joining from Altringham in July. Eoin Bolger is a young 20 year-old defender in his third season with the Swans. Junior Eccleston, is a centre-back, who joined the Swans on loan from Sutton United. Another young defender is Thabo Kuaho, who will be on the left, and rose through their youth ranks. Stefan Parkes is another defensive option who signed for the club after Fulham released him in the summer. He was at Walton last year on-loan but injury cut short his season. In goal will be young Jos Barker, who joined from Knaphill in June 2024, and now just 21, he has firmly consolidated his role between the sticks.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
The late dramatics at home to Poole Town, saw us lose a game that we were equal too for most of the game, but ultimately once more, came down to a lack of finishing once again. As stated above, we are now without a win in our last six games, and are fortunate, that other teams below us have failed to take any real advantage, and close the points gap between us. The lack of goals, just four in our last six games, means we now sit in fourteenth place, with our record at Pld 30 Won 10 Drawn 6 Lost 14 and 36pts. Our away record sits at 3 wins, 4 draws and 7 losses, with our last away win being at Sholing, just after Christmas.
Our strikeforce last Saturday contained Robbie Gallagher, Cheick Sylla & Joe Grant. It was Sylla who set-up Grant for his first and Stoke’s only goal last week, and its hoped this partnership will flourish in the last two-plus months of the season. With four in the middle, George Reid started on the bench, and it currently seems that one or the other appear to be the odd man-out each week, as Gallagher was the substitute last week. Joe Barough is now another substitute, hoping to shine when given a chance, the same can be said of Dan Rowe.
The midfield more than competed with Poole last week, and controlled this area for large parts of the game, and with a strong opponent again tomorrow afternoon, the three midfielders, could be the starters again tomorrow. This means Tom Blake who continues to lead the area, will be joined with Josh Green who has endless skill and energy in his role, but lacks that goal-scoring threat, and James Dickson who was happy to get his starting role back, and looked strong, until replaced by George Reid, in an effort to get back into the game. D’Andre Brown, whose starts have been effected by the odd injury, is more than capable of a starting position here, and another play with bags of energy. Ben Cook is the reliable option here, when needed. However, we do appear to make changes, week-to-week.
The defence will see the return of left back Joe O’Loughlin, who was on an agreed absence last week. He will be opposite James Clark or Lloyd Snell, who picked up a slight injury, but should be available as well. The centre-back pairing will be our captain, Billy Upton, and either Jack Ball or Scott Armsworth, who will be available after a minor injury last week. Elliott Legg is also an option in either defensive back role, but did play in a more attacking role on the right, when he entered the game last week. Simon Grant who celebrated his latest birthday during the week, will be the keeper between the posts tomorrow.
Our recent performances at Walton, do show that we can raise our game and more than compete with teams at the top, and I’m sure we will go into this game with whatever set-up, and battle Walton for ninety minutes. Last week I predicted the Poole game would be a humdinger of a game, and the last ten minutes of play, certainly confirmed that, and I see no reason, why tomorrows trip to Walton, won’t be the same once more.
With no expected segregation planned tomorrow, I hope that an extra number of Stoke fans will travel the short distance up the M3, and cheer on Dan and the Boys, in what will once more a big game for both teams.
Let’s go Stoke !
Match Preview by Martin French..
English 
Polish 