Marine v Basingstoke Preview

Marine v Basingstoke Preview

From Nick Taylor

After last Sunday’s disappointing defeat to Plymouth Parkway, Stuart Fleetwood and his Marine squad have to dust themselves down and face, arguably, the most important game of the year when they face midtable Basingstoke Town for a third time this season, with the Hampshire side having won both previous fixtures.

With up to eight sides still contesting the last two relegation spots in the Southern Premier South, and with games and time rapidly running out, Marine need to put in a storming performance in front of their loyal supporters, including many new ones tasting hospitality in the Community Suite for the first time.

Having gained promotion from the Isthmian South Central last season, Basingstoke Manager Dan Brownlie’s side sit comfortably in twelfth place, though having lost disappointingly at relegation threatened Hayes & Yeading on Tuesday night expects a big reaction from his players on Saturday, after expressing much dissatisfaction with his team’s efforts in his West London post match.

Last season’s top scorer, Bradley Wilson leads the way in the goalscoring charts with fifteen goals to his name, supported by the tricky Dan Rowe with twelve and the much travelled Liam Ferdinand with eleven goals in twenty games). Ferdinand has found The Webbswood Stadium to his liking in previous visits with Basingstoke and one of his former clubs the Met Police. Also in the visitors squad will be former Marine defender Marcus Schuster-Johnson who has been with Basingstoke for a couple of years.

Apart from Tom Sharpe with a long term injury and Joe Tumelty, who is now serving the first of his three match suspension from his Didcot Town sending off, head coach Stuart Fleetwood has no other injuries in the squad. Fleet’s, gave out this battle cry: “With three games to go, realistically, I believe we need to win two of the three to remain in the division. I don’t care in what order they come in but we will be aiming to win all three! The sooner we can gain points on the board, the better!”