Millers and Magpies, Blues and Bees, Gulls and Yellows

Our top two are in action tonight, and both need a victory, given third place Stowmarket Town will be left with two matches in hand after this evening’s fixtures.

Aveley are on the road to Basildon United, the Bees, four points clear of the bottom three, needing the points for entirely different reasons. The Millers are two points clear at the top and haven’t lost a league match since Saturday December 4th. They defeated the Bees three-one at Parkside on November 6th. Basildon have only won two of their last ten, and have seen a recent revival come off the rails just a little with one point from their last four matches.

If Aveley fail to win, then a Canvey Island victory against AFC Sudbury could put them top. The Gulls saw a five match unbeaten run come to an end against Coggeshall Town on Saturday, whilst the Yellows also saw a winning run come to an end- in their case, six matches- as they fell to a Roman Campbell inspired Tilbury at Chadfields. Five points away from the top five and having played a match more than the four sides directly above them, Sudbury really can’t afford to lose this one and retain any promotion pretentions.

A win for Brentwood Town as Bury Town come to call won’t just send them back into the top five, it’ll see them end the day in fourth place. The hosts got back to winning ways in style at Heybridge Swifts at the weekend and will hope that they’ve found the key to their own consistency as we start the run in, whilst Bury were being held at Barking and have had a thoroughly mixed season, good in parts and awful in others. That said, with one defeat in four, perhaps they’ve turned a corner- although unless there’s a miracle, too late to trouble the play off places themselves. This will be their first meeting of the campaign, and they do it all again at Ram Meadow on April 2nd.

Dereham Town are four points away from the play off places, and need a victory over Barking tonight to keep the pressure on the sides above them. The visitors need the points even more, seven points from safety and four points away from third bottom Hullbridge Sports. Barking have taken only two points from the last thirty available, whilst the Magpies got back to winning ways against Romford at the weekend after two successive defeats. Barking should pose a tougher task than Boro, however.

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