A massive South Central Tuesday!

We start at the top, where Chertsey Town, nine points clear and unbeaten since mid September, welcome second place Marlow. We’ve run out of superlatives to describe the Curfews performances this season, and they seem to have got over their mini-blip last month (if you can really call two draws a mini-blip!) after scoring ten goals in their last two. They were helped by the fact that their nearest challengers, who head to Alwyns Lane tonight, were dropping points at around the same time- although of course one of their two defeats from their last ten matches came against the Curfews at the Alfred Davis Ground, a one-nil loss on a night which saw Marlow play much of the match with nine men and Chertsey make hard work of breaking them down only to finally score with only four minutes left.

Marlow have been magnificent on occasions, particularly in front of goal, and certainly won’t have given up on the title. An away win tonight would give them real hope- a home win, however, would give Town a lead which would look almost unassailable.

Third place Leatherhead- the side with our best defence- are on the road to take on eighteenth place Ashford Town. The Tanners are four unbeaten, and have won three of them; whilst the Tangerines would love that kind of consistency. With two wins from ten- and seven defeats- they find themselves eleven points above the bottom two, but won’t yet feel safe. Tangerines boss Luke Tuffs takes on his former club, and he’ll hope for a change in luck, as the Tanners have won the previous three meetings between the sides.

Raynes Park Vale and Westfield continue to fight over fifth place, and both are in action this evening- although we suspect that both sides also believe they are fighting for fourth place, too, so Southall better look out!

Vale welcome Thatcham Town to South West London, knowing that anything other than victory could see them topple out of the top five. They got back to winning ways by defeating Southall at the weekend, and will go level on points with The All if they can deliver another victory- although would need a dramatically large win to supplant their rivals in fourth. They may not have it all their own way, as the ninth place Kingfishers are four unbeaten- and indeed have lost only one of their last eight. Ten points behind their hosts in the race for a play off spot, the gap may be a little large for Town to bridge, but they aren’t playing like a side who have decided to settle for mid table. The first meeting between the sides this season was a goalless draw, a repeat of which would be unlikely to satisfy either side.

Westfield are on the road to Chipstead, three points rather important to both sides. Westfield will be aware that if they are victorious and Raynes Park Vale are not, they will replace their rivals in the top five- and with only one defeat from ten they’ll be full of confidence as they take to the High Road. The Chips have been on a terrible run of late, but they ended an eleven match winless streak with victory over Uxbridge on Saturday, the three points allowing them to open up a ten point lead on second bottom Binfield. The sides have met ten times, with the Woking side winning five- including their first meeting this season, a three-one victory in November. The Chips have won three- including the last two meetings on their own patch.

Northwood, in fifteenth, welcome eleventh place Badshot Lea. Of the sides who joined the South Central Division in the summer only Raynes Park Vale are higher in the table than the Baggies (despite finding it seemingly impossible to defeat them), so it’s been a rather positive Isthmian debut - and they have already defeated tonight’s opponents twice this season, a three-nil Velocity Cup win in October, and, of course, a four-nil win on Westfield Lane on Saturday. If the Woods were left rather shellshocked on Saturday, they’ll be motivated by the chance of taking immediate revenge, and they have been much stronger on their own patch than on the road this season.

Second bottom Binfield are ten points away from safety with a couple of games in hand, but will be more than concerned by their six match winless run as they welcome Sutton Common Rovers tonight- and rather determined to put that right. Rovers are also six matches without a win, but the visitors have a fifteen point lead over their hosts and will have fond memories of defeating them four-one in November.

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