Match Preview: Southern League Premier Division South
Yate Town vs Basingstoke Town
When: Tuesday 25th November 2025 Kick-off 7.45pm
Where: Lodge Road, Yate, Gloucestershire. BS37 7LE
Yate Town (The Bluebells), 2025-26 League Position 13th
The loss at Poole Town, gives us back-to-back losses against teams in the playoff race, with the prospect of two tough games tomorrow night and league leaders Walton & Hersham this Saturday.
We now face a Yate Town in the return match, where back in October, we took the three points in a 4-2 win at Winklebury, with now departed Bradley Wilson scoring a hat-trick, and Liam Ferdinand scoring from the penalty spot.
Our Opponents
The Bluebells are managed by Darren Mullings, signed as a player from Salisbury in the autumn of 2022, and was a former schoolboy under 18 international and England College under 19 international. He joined Bristol Rovers as a trainee and turned professional with them in July 2005; spending two seasons there. He then spent time at Torquay United, before stints at Weston Super Mare & Gloucester City. He joined Chippenham Town in November 2017, and following the departure of manager John Rendell in September 2023, he took temporary charge of Yate Town, which was confirmed 6 weeks later and won promotion in his first full season as manager of the club.
The Bluebells are in a fine run of form, and are unbeaten in the last four games, winning three of them, including a 3-1 win at Uxbridge two weeks ago, and then a 4-1 thumping of Bracknell last Saturday. This form now puts them just one place below Basingstoke in thirteenth place, with a record of Pld 17 Won 5 Drawn 5 Lost 7 and 20pts. Their home record sits at 3 Wins, 4 Draws & 1 Loss. Since our original meeting, the Bluebells, have started to find the net, and now have 23 league goals. Their leading goalscorer is striker Marlon Jackson, with nine goals (five from the penalty spot), who signed for the Bluebells in June 2024, having spent time at Weston-Super-Mare last season. A Bristol City product, he spent time on loan at clubs such as Hereford, Aldershot, Northampton & Cheltenham. He had further spells at Hereford & Chippenham, before signing for Weston-Super-Mare in 2021. In October they signed well-known forward James Ollis from Hungerford Town. he was a regular goal for Hungerford, but more known for his time at Frome Town. 38-year-old Chris Zebroski, now has four goals, after joining from Taunton Town. He has played for over twenty clubs in his career. Lucas Tomlinson, has two goals this season, and was the clubs leading goalscorer last season. He had loan spells at Bath City, Torquay United & Gloucester, before joining Salisbury for the 2022/2023, but moved to the Bluebells in March 2023. Well-known Daryl Grubb, joined in the summer, having spent seven years at Weston-Super-Mare, as well as time Forest Green Rovers, and Gloucester City in May 2024. He has scored over 150 goals in his career of over 500 appearances. NB: he hasn’t played in recent weeks.
In midfield Lloyd James, a former Welsh U21 international player, he signed in 2024, from Taunton Town, whilst on loan from Bath City. He also had stints at Colchester Utd & Leyton Orient. Matt Britton also joined the club in the summer, having started his career at Cadbury Heath, then Larkhall Athletic in 2017 and he was there up until February 2022 and spent the remainder of season 2021/22 at Swindon Supermarine before joining Tiverton, where he spent the last three seasons. Another known midfielder is Rex Mannings, who we met when he played for Frome Town and more recently Chippenham Town. Corey Evans, now has five goals, having joined on loan from Newport County in August, after signing his first professional contract from County earlier in 2025.
The defence contains 23-year-old James Taylor, who joined Yate after initially being on loan from Truro City. He previously played at Bristol City, Bath City (on loan) and Cheltenham Town. Will Larvin was released by Bristol Rovers in the summer of 2024 having spent time on loan at Yate Town, and signed for the club in August 2024, and was part of the promotion side until injury forced him to miss the last few games of the season. Young Charlie White joined on loan from Bristol Rovers, having been on loan for a short period last season at Yate. A product out of Southampton academy, he spent a number of seasons at Bristol Rovers. They added Josh Bennett, highly regarded defender who has previously played for Cribbs, Street and Mangotsfield and signed for the Bluebells from Melksham Town. They have Dan Ball, who joined from Gloucester City. His career includes ten seasons at Bath City, then moved to Taunton Town in 2023. In goal will be Aaron Sainsbury, who joined the Bluebells in the summer of 2023. Sainsbury is an ex-Bristol City Pro having signed a contract in 2019 after being in the Bristol City Academy since a young age. He currently is a goalkeeping coach at the Championship outfit.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
Our battling performance not only against Poole Town, but in the awful weather conditions as well, brought us ultimately our second league loss in a row, and with still a long injury list, we head to Yate, with a number of new additions to the squad. Our strikeforce, saw the return of Liam Ferdinand, and assuming he has had no reaction, he will be in the matchday squad alongwith Dan Rowe & Josh Dolling. It is also hoped, but not guaranteed that Robbie Gallagher, could finally be able to added to the squad as well.
As stated above we now sit one place above tomorrow night’s opponents, in twelfth place, with our record at Pld 18 Won 6 Drawn 3 Lost 9 and 21pts. Our away record now stands at 2 Wins, 2 draws & 5 losses.
On Saturday, the midfield started with Josh Green, Ben Cook, D’Andre Brown, plus the first of two new additions in Tom Blake. Blake, joined after three years at Bath University, and also spent time at Bristol Manor Farm. Connor Barratt, and our other new signing, on-loan Connor Harris, played the last 25 minutes of the game. Harris on-loan from Farnborough, despite his huge size is just 18, and was part of AFC Wimbledon’s academy, and spent a short time at Aldershot Town. With this all five of these should be part of tomorrow nights squad. James Dickson, is still out with a hamstring injury. It was also confirmed, but not unsurprising, that Dara Dada had been released.
The defence not only had to deal with Poole Town’s strong attacking line-up, but also the wet & greasy surface, which clearly made tackling and passing out the back more difficult, on a pitch that started to retain water as the game went on. With this, some crucial saves by Joel Halliday, and some poor Poole finishing, we only conceded the one goal. With Jack Ball still out through injury, Billy Upton was partnered once more with James Clark, who again more than fulfilled the role he was given. Joe O’Loughlin, continues to be one of the stars of our team, and has nailed down the left-back slot. On the right was Markus Johnson-Schuster, who more than did his job Saturday. Elliott Legg & Scott Armsworth were unused subs at Poole, and will be in contention tomorrow night. Joel Halliday will once more be donning the keepers gloves, and made some outstanding saves, and had little chance with Poole’s goal.
It is expected to be dry, but cold tomorrow night in Gloucestershire, but a trip on a Tuesday night to a team clearly in form and a decent home record, will need to be matched by ninety minutes of strong battling and tenacious play if we are to return with some points.
Let’s Go Stoke !
Match Preview by Martin French..
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