Official preview for this match:
The fight for Isthmian League survival continues on Saturday as we host bottom of the table side Bowers & Pitsea this Saturday. It's a massive...
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It would certainly be useful if Sam German is finally able to return in place of Ross Marshall. He's been reported as one week away from returning on several occasions since just before Christmas.
After Monday's cup win I actually feel confident of winning this one, rather than just hoping for the best. We really do need to start winning quite urgently now, as anything less could see us drop into the relegation spots for the first time this season.
We eem to have had a remarkable sequence of playing in form teams since the wheels first began to come off in late November. The first real setback was at home to Hashtag, who escaped from the bottom four as a result, but have since climbed to 6th. The next home defeats were against Dover and Cray Valley, who were the top two at the time and on fire, but have both since become more inconsistent. Carshalton had won 5 in a row, yet we actually managed to beat them on Boxing Day. We lost at Whitehawk, who had just changed manager and were in the middle of a sequence of just one defeat in 10. We lost at Cray, who were on a winning streak with only one goal conceded in 5 games. Then came the fateful defeat at home to Bognor, which was the final straw for Hak's reign as manager.
Since Brad took over we've lost at Billericay, who went top as a result and have now won 6 of their last 8. We lost to Chichester, who have now won 7 in a row. Then we lost at Horsham, who have now won 10 of the last 11. By contrast Bowers haven't won in 8 and have scored only 27 goals in 29 games, 4 of which were in the first half when we lost at their place in September. That was their second win of the season, having broken their duck at current leaders Dartford the previous weekend. Their squad included two former Hamlet players in Alex Teniola and Yannis Ambroisine.
We've got a tougher looking assignment at home to Folkestone on Tuesday evening, followed by another 6 pointer at Hastings next Saturday. The following weekend's game away to Potters Bar will be played at King's Langley, where they're groundsharing while a 3G pitch is installed at their own ground, so that's a bonus new ground tick for many of us who like that sort of thing.