A four-way fight for top spot

Bishop’s Stortford kick off the weekend in pole position- but they may have their work cut out to stay there, as they travel to face a side who have gone three matches without conceding a goal, Hastings United. The Blues have been in fabulous form, with seventeen points from their last twenty one and no defeats, whilst the Pilot Field faithful have been doing their best impression of Arsenal fans from the 90’s, celebrating in song three consecutive one-nil wins. This one could be close, but nothing less than three points will assure the Blues of remaining at the summit.

Second place Potters Bar Town welcome Cray Wanderers. The Scholars will want to bounce back from Trophy and League defeats against Heybridge Swifts and Canvey Island, but although Wands have only won one of their last five across League and Trophy they have been fabulous on occasions. How difficult the Scholars find their task may depend on which Wands turns up. Their last five meetings have seen two wins each and a draw, Wands coming from two-nil down to take three critical points the last time they travelled to these opponents, on February 1st.

Enfield Town welcome Lewes to the QEII Stadium. This will be the Towners fifth home match in a row, and they won the first two, but have only a draw to show from the last two. The Rooks have been in terrible form, a shadow of the side they were in the early part of the season, and don’t have a league win from their last five attempts. The last time they visited Donkey Lane was in January, and they won four-one- how boss Tony Russell would like a repeat of that. Another defeat could even see them in the bottom four.

Canvey Island, who start the weekend in sixth place, are on the road to Margate. The Gulls are seven matches unbeaten in the league, whilst Gate got back to winning ways at Corinthian-Casuals in midweek, and could climb as high as seventh with another victory.

Horsham are unlikely to finish the weekend in the top five, as although they could go level on points with Hornchurch, who are in cup action, if they could defeat Kingstonian. The Hornets saw a poor run come to an end when they came from behind to knock Aveley out of the FA Trophy last weekend, and will hope to take that form into the league; whilst the K’s got back to winning ways themselves on Wednesday, hammering Brightlingsea Regent.

Bognor Regis Town welcome Herne Bay to Sussex. Bay will be cock-a-hoop after their demolition of Lewes in midweek, but that was their first league victory since August 16th so they’ll want it to be the start of something positive rather than a one-off win. The Rocks are two matches unbeaten but will need to start turning draws into victories if they have promotion aspirations.

Haringey Borough welcome Bowers & Pitsea to White Hart Lane. Both sides have drawn five of their ten league matches this season, and only three point separates them, but Borough will be fairly confident after only one defeat from their last six across all competitions. Bowers don’t have a win of any kind since August 20th, and left with a goalless draw on their last visit to Coles Park.

Wingate & Finchley, without a win and having drawn six of their nine matches so far, look once more for that first three pointer when they welcome Billericay Town. The visiting Blues are on a good run, having taken seven points from their last nine in the league and having lost only one of their last eight in all competitions.

Carshalton Athletic play host to Corinthian-Casuals. Athletic got back to winning ways by defeating Aveley on Monday night, whilst Casuals are still without a manager, aren’t allowed to play in their own ground due to storm damage, and don’t have a win since the opening day.

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