Can the Brickies take pole position in the battle for home advantage?

Sittingbourne have already qualified for the play offs, but our third place side, who for much of the campaign have looked a shoe-in for home advantage in their forthcoming Semi-Final, have stumbled towards the finish line of late, allowing Chichester City to close to within a point and Three Bridges to within two.

The Brickies head to Hythe Town tonight without a win from their last four- albeit three of them ended in draws- and will want to get back to winning ways against a Cannons side who are currently in freefall. Eight defeats in a row have turned Town from play off hopefuls to also-rans, falling down to twelfth place and conceding seventeen goals in their last four matches. The Cannons have defeated the Brickies the last three times the sides have met- but they don’t look favourites this evening.

At the other end of the table, Littlehampton Town are four points clear of second bottom Beckenham Town, and head into tonight’s match with bottom side Erith and Belvedere aware that victory will not only see them safe but will relegate their opponents. Both the Golds and the Deres are staggering towards the conclusion of their season, the hosts tonight with one win from ten, the visitors eleven matches since their last victory and sadly- barring a miracle- stumbling out of the Division after only one season in it, despite a fine start to the campaign which saw them hammer the Golds six-nil in the FA Cup. They also won the league match between the sides by two goals to one, so Town will have a collection of reasons for revenge.

Burgess Hill Town welcome Sheppey United (this one a 7.30 PM kick off, and our usual reminder to any visiting fans travelling by train, Wivelsfield is the correct station). The Ites have been in good form, with four wins from their last five, whilst Hill have won only two of their last ten and are looking for a first win in five. The sides have already met twice this season, the Ites winning in the Cup, and a goalless draw in the league fixture at Holm Park.

Horndean play host to Ashford United, fifteenth v eleventh. Despite the difference in league placings we suspect the Deans will be much happier with their season- they have comfortably survived their first season at our level and played some fine football in the process- whilst the Nuts and Bolts ambitions were much higher, but they’ve never been in the running for promotion. The Deans are six without a win, their visitors have won two of their last six, but lost their last two. When the sides met at Homelands in February, United won three-one.

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