Wednesday Night Football!

Given it seems to have stopped raining for a moment, we’ve actually got some football for you tonight- which is just as well as we were considering switching to water polo.

In Pitching in Isthmian Premier we’re off to Hayes Lane- and a 3G pitch- where Cray Wanderers play host to Potters Bar Town. Wands defeat at Whitehawk on February 27th- they haven’t managed a match since- was their first in eight matches, and their home form is particularly good. Their last defeat at Hayes Lane came nearly five months ago, against Hornchurch- and they are now unbeaten in fifteen home matches in all competitions.

The visiting Scholars will be trying to end that record. Also without a match since the 27th February, a goalless draw at Folkestone Invicta, Town are five matches unbeaten and indeed have lost only three of their last ten- and they’ll be delighted to be back in action after their enforced lay off. The table has the Scholars three places and six points behind Wands, but they do have four matches in hand over tonight’s opponents, mainly because they’ve been unable to host a match since February 6th.

Wanderers are four unbeaten against Town, with two wins. The last meeting between the sides, in October, ended one-one, David Hicks netting for the Scholars, Ellis Brown levelling for Wands.

Pitching In Isthmian South Central sees fourteenth place Guernsey welcome our leaders, Chertsey Town- but their places in the table might not tell the whole story.

The Curfews are rightly to be admired, unbeaten since mid September- that’s twenty six matches, which explains the six point lead at the top of the table, a lead which, of course, would extend to nine were they to win in the Channel Islands. That said, the last couple of matches they have been held to draws and not looked at their best, so perhaps this is their version of a blip! The Green Lions have looked in scintillating form of late, winning four of their last five- the pick of those victories undoubtedly the four-two win at Marlow at the end of last month. Those last five matches, by the way, have seen them score seventeen goals- including their one thousandth in senior football, which Charlton Gauvain got at Corinthian-Casuals on Saturday. We suspect that there will be a big crowd at Footes Lane tonight as the hosts attempt to get revenge for a four-one defeat at Alwyns Lane in November.

The sides have met five times, the Curfews winning four of them. The best the Green Lions have done against these opponents was a three-tree draw at Footes Lane in February 2022, A Ross Allen hat trick seeing them come from behind three times to earn a point.

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