Match Preview: Isthmian League South Central Division
\nBasingstoke Town Vs Thatcham Town
\nWhen: Monday 27th December 2021 Kick-off 3pm
\nWhere: Winklebury Sports Complex, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
\nThatcham Town (Nickname \u2013 The Kingfishers), Average 2021-22 Home Attendance 162
\nAdmission Prices: Adults \u00a310, Concessions \u00a37 Aged 13-17 \u00a33 Aged 12 & Under \u00a31
\n<\/b>
\nWell after the 1-1 draw at Hanwell Town and a ten-day wait, we have our last league game of 2021, as we host nearby rival Thatcham Town in this season\u2019s return fixture. Back at the August Bank Holiday we won a tight encounter 2-3, which included first-half goals by Bradley Wilson, Lloyd Snell & Shaun Dallimore, and two penalty-saves by Paul Strudley being just enough to hold onto the three points.<\/p>\n
Since that day, the two teams have taken differing routes as they come to us in mid-table.<\/p>\n
Our Opponents
\n<\/b>The Kingfishers are managed by Jamie Leacock, who after the early season defeat to Stoke, took on a hesitant start to the season and were sitting in the bottom five of the league, until things took an upswing over the last seven weeks. Since November and possibly due to a number of squad changes, they have lost just once at home to Tooting & Mitcham, whilst picking up two wins (Staines Town 4-0 & Northwood 1-0), and four draws.
\nThis leaves them in 12th place, as they head down the A339 with a league record of PLD 17 Won 4 Drawn 6 Lost 7 GF 22 GA 30 Pts 18.<\/p>\n
Their forward-line is led by Lamin Ceesay who has seven goals on the season, six in the league, with fellow striker Balai Dembele jumping ship to join Bracknell, Alex Miller is Lamin\u2019s main strike partner. Miller who rejoined Thatcham from a period at Mortimer, has 3 league goals this season. Other strikers are Kai Stubbs who joined from Reading City & Glenn Gabriel, who was playing in Spain\u2019s 3rd tier of football.
\nIn midfield, is Daniel Fosu, regarded as a box-to box player, who has five goals on the season, and previously played for Farnborough & Hendon. With him are two Harry\u2019s, Harry Grant who was part of the FA Vase winning side, and rejoined this year after a spell at North Leigh, and Harvey Harry a young midfielder who was part of the Madejski Academy at Reading.
\nIn defence and the team captain is ex-Stoke defender Josh Edwards. Edwards scored his only goal of the season, in last week\u2019s one-nil victory at Northwood. Yet another player who joined mid-season is Cameron Rohart-Brown, who having played for a number of local clubs, joined form Westfield.
\nAnother ex-Stoke player Chris Rackley, started as the number one, but in recent games Jack Hopwood who joined the club in November, now appears to be the keeper in favour.<\/p>\n
Your Basingstoke Town Side<\/b>
\nOur last game, the 1-1 draw at Hanwell Town, mean\u2019t we had obtained 4 out of 6 points against one of our playoff challengers, and we now sit 3rd in the league with an overall record of PLD 16 Won 10 Drawn 3 Lost 3 GF 31 GA 22 Pts 33
\nAssuming the game goes ahead, and with no players restricted through covid, then in many fans eyes we should set-up with both Conor Lynch & Stefan Brown upfront, and look to attack from the outset. Lynch, will look to increase on his seven league goals, 13 on the season, and both should be supported by the increasingly dangerous Bradley Wilson, if he is back from suspension. Bradley has 8 in the league, 9 on the season.
\nWingers George Reid & McKoy Palmer both in contention, will we look to line-up with either of them in the starting line-up.
\nThe midfield roles should see Simon Dunn with the captains armband, whilst Anton Rodgers is one of Dan Brownlie\u2019s key players in the middle. Dependent on the wingers options, D\u2019Andre Brown strengthens his starting role each time in a Stoke shirt, and deserves the start, alongside Ben Cook. This leaves players such as Lloyd Snell & Jack French on the bench.
\nThe defence still without the likes of Scott Armsworth & Shaun Dallimore, still have plenty of quality in experienced Nathan Smart & Daryl Wollers. If either miss out Jon Boardman is waiting to step in. The defensive backs will as usual comprise from any two of Dan Williamson, who stood out at Hanwell Town, James Haworth & Aiden Lewis.
\nMany fans view keeper Paul Strudley as one of our players of the season so far, and will presumably continue with the keepers jersey.
\nOn paper we are clear favourites to get back to winning ways, but Thatcham Town will come to North Hants with nothing to lose, and thus Dan Brownlie’s starting line-up could be key in taking control of this game early on, in an attempt to try and put this game away and earn three valuable points.
\nMatch Preview by Martin French..<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Match Preview: Isthmian League South Central Division Basingstoke Town Vs Thatcham Town When: Monday 27th December 2021 Kick-off 3pm Where: Winklebury Sports Complex, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF Thatcham Town (Nickname \u2013 The Kingfishers), Average 2021-22 Home Attendance 162 Admission Prices: Adults \u00a310, Concessions \u00a37 Aged 13-17 \u00a33 Aged 12 & Under \u00a31 Well after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2021-22-news","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2332-300-e1581543916237.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6471,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6470\/revisions\/6471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btfcsc.co.uk\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}