Pitching In to the new season: North Division

We’ll start at the Brentwood Arena, where our promotion favourites Brentwood Town take on a side predicted to be amongst their rivals, Felixstowe & Walton United. Both sides, of course, qualified for the Play Off’s last season, the Blues only thwarted in their pursuit of Premier dreams by a penalty shootout, the Seasiders falling to a narrow Semi-Final defeat. They’ve both held on to the majority of last season’s squads and strengthened judiciously, but today will be a test for both sides. The Seasiders won at the Arena at the end of February, and indeed did the double over the Blues last season.

AFC Sudbury are highly fancied after their summer strengthening- with Ben Hunter, Dave Cowley, Lionel Ainsworth, Ollie Brown, Josh Mayhew, Harrison Chatting and Nnamdi Nwachuku amongst the arrivals for the Yellows. They travel to relegated East Thurrock United, the Rocks looking to take an early fancied scalp in their quest to regain their Premier status.

Grays Athletic are also amongst the favourites, and their signings of Ronnie Winn and Sam Bantick, particularly, have strengthened their hopes after they just missed out on the Play Off’s last season. They travel to Coggeshall Town, the Seed Growers hoping to bounce back from an FA Cup exit at the hands of Barking.

Stowmarket Town, for so long title challengers last season, have added the likes of Shaun Bammant, Jacek Zielonka, Jack Wilkinson and Ed Upson over the summer, and seem poised for another positive season. They welcome Hullbridge Sports, who will be buoyed by last season’s great escape but wil hope not to have to mount another one this time around.

Maldon & Tiptree were expected to challenge last season but didn’t quite manage it, and the Jammers will hope to do a little better this time around. They start by hosting Tilbury, another side with higher hopes than they delivered last time out, the Dockers fresh from a four-two cup win last weekend.

Bury Town also disappointed last season. The Blues welcome Hashtag United, who almost crashed the play off party. Both sides will hope to be in the top five this season. Town started the campaign well, a four-nil hammering of Lakenheath in the cup last weekend, but the Tags took four points from them last season.

Heybridge Swifts are on the road to Basildon United. The Bees will want to bounce back from a three-nil cup defeat last weekend, whilst swifts will be delighted by their form in the four-nil win over Clapton. It was six from six for Swifts against the Bees last season, so they’ll hope for more of the same.

Lowestoft Town are welcomed back to our ranks after relegation last season, and are on the road to Southend, where they face Great Wakering Rovers. The hosts were amongst the relegation favourites for our supporters and will be trying to prove them wrong- and to be fair, they are usually quite good at that- whilst the Trawler Boys will want to bounce back at the first attempt. Rovers lost their FA Cup tie at Dunstable Town last weekend, two-nil.

Two new boys will be playing at Lowestoft Town, as that is the new home of Gorleston, who face New Salamis. Gorleston had a fine start to the campaign last Saturday, walloping Biggleswade United four-nil, whilst Salamis slipped to defeat at Harpenden Town.

Finally, it’s a battle of the W’s, as Witham Town welcome Wroxham. Town, after their major flirtation with relegation last year, will want a good start, and they hammered home five goals without reply in the Cup last weekend. The Yachtsmen were good in patches as they fell to cup defeat against Dereham Town, and to be fair they did lose to a goal from the half way line and it’s difficult to legislate for those!

Follow the Pitching In Isthmian League on Instagram. Head here or search for theisthmianleague on your app. We're also on Facebook and Twitter.