Winchester City v Tiverton Town
Saturday March 15th 3pm
The Charters Community Stadium
Having played two relegation rivals in two of their previous three fixtures, Tiverton now come face-to-face with a Winchester side hovering above the bottom four in 18th place.
A win for The Citizens will ease their relegation worries and a win for The Yellow's will see them close the gap on the Wiltshire side and may even mean that they move up a place.
New management team, Asa Hall and Steve Orchard's side have slipped to 21st position in the table, although they’ve yet to taste defeat. Frome winning one of the two games they had in hand over us, by beating Hanwell on Tuesday night.
Another team battling the drop Poole, defeated Winchester to move to within Two points of Saturday’s opponents. With highflyers Totton and Gloucester still to play, realistically we must target winnable fixtures, however tricky or challenging they are, at this stage of the season.
Scoring goals has been more of a dilemma for Tivvy than conceding them over the last few months. Since the turn of the Year, 16 goals in 12 games is our defensive record, but attacking wise in the same number of games we have only found the net 5 times.
That problem will need to be rectified in the run in. Encouragingly Saturday’s point at home last weekend, saw midfielders; Captain Matt Britton and Gabe Billington, return to the fold. Jeff Forkuo was unavailable for family reasons and Asa Hall will be hoping to be able to pick from as full a squad as possible.
Winchester Manager Craig Davis took over The Citizens, almost Eight years ago and it has been one of the most successful periods in the club’s history with him in the hotseat. This is the home side’s third consecutive campaign at this level. Their ambition has seen them change to a 3G pitch, this term.
Home grown talent Ik Hill has been Winchester’s main source of goals. Seventeen goals represent a very good return for Hill and the popular 24-year-old goal getter has played for The Citizens in seven of his eight years in senior football. The exception being a season away at Westfield, in 20/21.
He is assisted in the goal scoring department by the vastly experienced Tommy Wright. His non-league pedigree has seen him play well over 100 games at Sutton United and spend three seasons with Havant and Waterlooville. A loan spell at Salisbury, to the tune of 39 goals in 2016/17 and another at Totton complete an impressive CV.
Combative and inspirational midfielder Jamie Barron is the captain, and he has been a big player for both the club and the manager during his tenure. Apart from one season at Gosport, he is very much a Citizens stalwart. His first campaign for the Wiltshire side was in 2014/15.
Quick footed, pacy and exciting winger Trevor Caborn often dazzled last season and has once again been a mainstay in The Winchester team.
Seasoned, central defender Callum Buckley was professionally contracted to Bournemouth between 2014 & 2017, spent Two seasons at Weymouth following his release and has also represented; Hayes & Yeading and was at Dorchester for a few seasons, before signing for the club.
Goalkeeper Luke Cairney has consistently been one of this division’s best for a decent amount of time. A strong performer with all round assets, he earned this reputation at Poole.
His displays with the Dolphins, caught Hungerford’s attention when they were a National League South side, and he continued to shine there. Returning to Poole, before moving to the Citizens, a little way into last season.
Once again, The Yellows will be thrust into a pressure cooker atmosphere, and both sets of players will be looking for a precious 3 points on Saturday. The reverse fixture back in September, saw Tiverton run out 2-1 winners. The scorers on that day were, Joe Parker with the opener and Dylan Jones winning the game in added time.