Winchester City vs Poole Town – Match Preview
Both of us were knocked out of the FA Vase competition on Saturday. We took Gosport to a penalty shoot-out but lost 4-3 and Winchester went down 3-0 at Weymouth.
So, its back to league action and the chase for those valuable points. The Citizens have had major ground work taking place which has meant that they were not able to play at their Charters Community Stadium but the work is now complete and they are ready to show off their 3G playing surface, new stands and many other enhancements including lots of red and black paint!!
Perhaps partly for this reason Craig Davis’s team find themselves in 19th place in the table (P8 W1 D3 L4 6 points) with just the one away 3-0 win at Plymouth Parkway so far this campaign.
We hit something of a low point in this fixture last season conceding four goals and having Declan Rose sent off, so we don’t go there with happy memories. Hopefully this will inspire the team to put that match behind us and come away with the result that we need to keep pace with the top group in this league.
The Citizens are managed by Craig Davis who joined them from Fleet Town. He took over as Interim Manager until the end of the 2016-17 season before taking over the reins permanently. His playing career started off as a pro at Cardiff City before spells at Bashley, Salisbury, Gosport Borough and AFC Totton. Has won both the Southern League South and West and Premier as a player.
We will no introduction to ex Dolphins Luke Cairney (GK) and Ollie Blamer (ST) who have featured regularly for the Citizens in recent weeks.
Steve Tully will have his work cut out to rally the team after a rather below par performance on Saturday but his management of his substitutions to change a game can not be underestimated. We have had some matches where we seem to be lacking direction only for Steve to make up to five changes and bring about a significant difference to our performance.
There is bound to be a large following to The Charters Community Stadium so give the lads your full support, it really does make a huge difference.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.