A big night for the play off chasers

We’ve five matches in Pitching In Isthmian Premier tonight, and some of them may turn out to be rather important.

Perhaps our biggest match is in North London, where fourth place Wingate and Finchley welcome seventh place Hastings United. Whilst this match is important to the hosts, it is crucial for the visitors, who are two points away from the top five with two games in hand over the side currently occupying fifth place, Billericay Town- but who are also aware that the side in sixth place, Horsham, are level on points with the fifth place Blues with an additional game in hand. After three wins in a row, United will hope they’ve hit form at the right time, but they face hosts who have lost only one of their last ten and are seven points better off.

The side from the Maurice Rebak Stadium have had a magnificent season and it shows no sign of stopping- and victory tonight would take them third. They are hoping to do the double over United after a three-two win at Pilot Field- but they will still remember the encounter between the sides in North London last season, which Hastings won four-nil.

Sixth place Horsham are also in North London, as their match against Potters Bar Town has been transferred to the 3G surface at Coles Park, home of Haringey Borough. With three games in hand over the side currently occupying fifth place the Hornets won’t be too downhearted by their defeat at Folkestone Invicta on Saturday- after all, they’d won their previous three- whilst the Scholars previous fine form hasn’t been on show in their last two fixtures, both of which they’ve lost. The last nine meetings between the sides have seen only one win for Potters Bar Town, seven for the Hornets, and one draw- their meeting in January ending two-nil in Horsham’s favour.

Title winners Hornchurch get the chance to celebrate all over again, as Cray Wanderers arrive at Bridge Avenue. The Urchins have five matches left to reach one hundred points, and indeed currently have the same number of points as they have goals, eighty eight, so that could be a double target. Wands are sixteenth, entirely safe from trouble, which is perhaps just as well with one win from their last seven- although they’ll perhaps be a different proposition once they get to play in a ground of their very own next season. The Urchins defeated the Wands four-one at Hayes Lane in October.

Whitehawk welcome Concord Rangers to the seaside, and anything other than a win for the visitors will confirm their relegation- although with an eighteen point gap between the Beachboys and fifth bottom Cheshunt and only six games left, and with the Ambers having a much better goal difference, that relegation is already as good as confirmed. The Hawks start the day in thirteenth and could climb to eleventh with victory, having lost only two of their last ten.

Finally, Canvey Island and Lewes edge closer to the end of rather disappointing seasons- although of course the Rooks could yet win a European prize having reached the final stages of the Fenix Trophy! In truth Lewes aren’t entirely out of the play off race if we rely entirely on mathematics, but twelve points away from the top five with only five matches left and a vastly inferior goal difference suggests otherwise. The Gulls finds themselves in seventeenth, and we can’t quite mark them safe- although one more win would do it for certain, and indeed one more point would just about do it. They picked up their first win in nine last time out. The two sides drew two-two at the Dripping Pan just over a month ago.

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