We’ve three of the top five in action- and a seaside shuffle

It’s two weeks since Bishop’s Stortford, our second place side, last took the field- but they will hope to close the gap on leaders Hornchurch to two points by winning their game in hand tonight. It may well not be easy, however, as their opponents are the side in third place, Potters Bar Town.

The Blues have taken ten points from their last twelve despite not quite having rediscovered their form from earlier in the campaign, and also have three clean sheets from those four matches. The Scholars have also been without a game for a fortnight- their last match a Velocity Cup win over Hullbridge Sports- and are looking to pick up their first league win since the departure of boss Sammy Moore. The Scholars have lost their last two league matches by five goals to two, so will be desperate to get back to form as quickly as possible- and tonight would be a good night for that to begin, as their following match on Boxing Day is against another of the top five, Enfield Town.

When the Blues and Scholars met earlier this season, Stortford left the Lantern Stadium with a one-nil win; indeed the Blues have won the last three meetings between the two sides, after losing the previous five.

Aveley will be looking to capitalise on any slip up from two of the sides above them as they travel to Billericay Town. The Millers, who start the night in fifth place, are two points behind Stortford and the Scholars, but have struggled to win of late, drawing their last three matches. Billericay’s winless run is rather longer, the Blues taking only two points from their last fifteen. The Millers will hope to deliver their first double of the season, after winning their first meeting with the Blues, back in August, by one goal to nil.

Further down the table, Margate- in sixteenth- will hope to narrow the five point gap between themselves and eleventh place Hastings United as the Sussex coast side visit the Kent coast. Gate are four games unbeaten in the league, with two wins and two draws- an identical four game record to their visitors. The two sides will meet again at Pilot Field in early February.
The last time the two sides met, back in 2016, Gate were in National League South and the competition was the FA Cup. A two-two draw at Hartsdown Park saw United go two goals up through Steve Watt and Sam Crutwell before Margate got two goals back, Matt Johnson and Manny Parry with the equalisers. The replay at Pilot Field went to extra time. Another United opener- Crutwell again on target- was cancelled out by Daniel Akindayini, and in the one hundred and fifteenth minute the winner went to the Blues, Elliott Buchanan with it.

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