Match Preview: Isthmian League South Central Division
South Park Vs Basingstoke Town
When: Tuesday 1st February 2022 Kick-off 7.45pm
Where: King Georges Field, Whitehall Lane, South Park, Reigate. RH2 8LG
South Park (Nickname – The Sparks), Average 2021-22 Home Attendance 67
We head back on the road following our first win of 2022, the comfortable 4-0 beating of Staines Town. Although it took over an hour to finally break the deadlock, it then allowed us the confidence to add more goals.
With other results finally going our way from the teams above, this leaves us travelling into Surrey to take on another team we have never played before, South Park, with us needing to keep up with teams who now sit above us in the promotion push.
Our Opponents
The Field were managed by Martin Dynan until Saturday’s match at Tooting & Mitcham Utd, when Dynan left to join Haywards Heath. The Sparks then moved quickly bringing in Harrison Williams, who joined from nearby Redhill. Williams is bringing part of his coaching staff from the Combined Counties league side.
South Park merged with Reigate in 2001, and after being initially called South Park & Reigate, the club was finally named South Park just after that.
The Sparks currently sit in a comfortable mid-table position (9th), with an overall record of
PLD 21 Won 7 Drawn 5 Lost 9 GF 39 GA 35 Pts 26. Although in ninth they sit 15 points behind us, so keeping in the top half of the table will be their priority.
Their recent form however has not been the best, although slowly improving, but since December they lost five games on the bounce, but then beat Sutton Common Rovers, hardly world beaters 2-1 and as stated above a 1-1 draw against T&M.
Their goal difference is similar to ours, and in the five losses since December they conceded 19 goals, whilst just two in the last two games.
Their goals come from ultimately three strikers, Adam Aziz, Ibrahim Jalloh and more recently Melford Simpson.
Aziz, had 18 goals on the season, 13 league goals before departing recently.
Jalloh, has nine goals on the season, eight in the league. Jalloh joined from Three Bridges at the start of the season.
Melford Simpson is another striker who now has eight goals, six in the league.
This mean’t these three strikers had combined for 27 of the 39 league goals this season.
Added to this Just before Christmas, South Park signed Ashley-Paul Robinson who played for Crystal Palace under Neil Warnock back in 2010. Robinson, has also played for Dulwich Hamlets & Bromley, but has been a substitute the last couple of games.
One other forward they signed back in November from Horsham was Alex Laing, who has three league goals and one cup goal so far.
South Park looking to move to a 3G surface in the near future, will look at our results, the number of goals we concede and will look to put pressure on a pitch that is likely to suit them more than us.
Your Basingstoke Town Side
So after our three games against the bottom-placed teams in the league, we earned just four points out of a possible nine, hardly playoff form, but at least we won last time out as we face the only team we have yet to play this season.
Our win if not the automatic certainty that it should have been took over an hour to get rolling. This win, alongwith other results pushed us up to sixth, but gives us hope as we have a tough few games coming up.
The win leaves us with a record of PLD 21 Won 12 Drawn 5 Lost 4 GF 46 GA 34 Pts 46
Conor Lynch continues on his amazing scoring feat this season, adding another brace against Staines Town. This gives him 20 goals on the season, 13 in the league, whilst fellow striker Stefan Brown, now appearing fit and set in the team, added to his tally once again via the penalty spot. Stefan is the best penalty-taker I have seen at this level, and his link-up player is now more noticeable.
This leaves Bradley Wilson, in need of finding the net, and that sometimes can be his downfall, as the simple pass can be the better option.
My view on the McKoy Palmer and George Reid situation has not changed since my Staines preview. Palmer is the livelier option and won the penalty last Saturday. As others state, not just me, George is still trying to find his way back from his niggly injuries a few weeks back.
Simon Dunn, as the Gaffer stated was the powerhouse last Saturday, but possibly needed the likes of Ben Cook & D’Andre Brown to take some of the hard work off him. Cook was visibly disappointed that he was not starting against Staines, and fans will be shocked if he is not in the starting eleven tomorrow night. Is D’Andre fit enough to start and last a full 90 minutes or at least a significant amount of playing time to start him? If fit he is one of a few players you want indelibly added to the line-up sheet.
Defensively, we kept our fourth clean-sheet. Two of those have come against Staines Town, one against Northwood and the opening game of the season at Binfield are the others.
As stated in the Staines Town preview with Armsworth out for the season and Dallimore out injured again, it pretty much leaves the defence the same as before.
Rumours circulating Winklebury that we could get a big centre-back joining the team, are still to come to fruition, but in many fans view is a necessity, not a nice to have.
With the understanding that Paul Strudley is likely back between the sticks, I would like to see Myles Bowman on the bench if possible. Bowman proved a fan favourite making two superb second-half saves and looked assured around a defence he did not know.
With South Park’s home average attendance being just 67 (the lowest in the league), it will be interesting to see how many of our fans travel up the M3/M25 Junction 8 to this Tuesday evening’s game, which on paper is more important that we come away with the three points, than our hosts.
Back-to-back wins are key if we are to truly maintain our pressure on those four (not Bracknell) teams above us.
See you there.
Match Preview by Martin French.
Polish 
English 