Poole Town vs Basingstoke Town – Match Preview
Unfortunately, we were not able to celebrate the new management era with a win at Chertsey on Tuesday evening but joint managers Joe Lea and Pat Suraci both agreed that the performance was very positive. They played three forwards in a very attacking formation which certainly produced some of our best movement going forward this year. As they correctly identified, only Frome Town on 22 have scored fewer goals than us (24), so this perhaps this is a sign of things to come.
However, we did have something to celebrate and that was the record-breaking appearance of our club captain Jamie Whisken, who has now worn the red and white of Poole Town on 492 occasions. After the match he spoke to our commentator Connor Hannon and said “The season has been tough so far, with 14 new players coming in, it was always going to take time for them to gel, but we’ve got a good squad and we believe in the process and each other. “I’ve no doubt that our fortunes will start to turn and we’ll climb up the table to give ourselves a platform on which to build. I still feel that I am destined to lift the Southern League trophy one more time in my career and hopefully that will be next season” Well done, Jamie, here’s to the next 492!!
That defeat leaves us in 18th place (P24 W6 D8 L10 26 points) but with plenty of games left for us to climb to a more respectable position. Our home form is now identical to our away form P12 W3 D4 L5.
We return to the Black Gold on Saturday when we will welcome the players, supporters and officials of Basingstoke Town. We played the reverse fixture in November when we came away with an unexpected 3-1 win. At the time Basingstoke were fourth in the league and playing well. Since then, they have dropped to 9th (P25 W8 D10 L7 34 points) but still very much in contention for the play-offs.
The club were delighted to be able to retain the experienced striker Liam Ferdinand for the upcoming 2024/25 season. A player who we have come up against on many occasions in recent seasons. He joined ‘Stoke back in October 2023 and scored 11 league goals for the club last season. ’Stoke boss Dan Brownlie said at the time “In Liam we’ve a proven and consistent goal scorer but his abilities go far beyond just that. He made a big difference when he came in midway through last year; and whilst his output was always good, I know he’s hungry for more and that’s a really exciting prospect.”
They are managed by Dan Brownlie who was appointed in 2019 succeeding Martin Kuhl who he served as assistant. In fact, he had served the previous three managers as their assistant before being given the top job. He has a great deal of experience in non-league football and managed Hartley Wintney prior to joining Basingstoke. A former Reading youth team player, Brownlie spent nine seasons with Hartley Wintney as a player, coach and joint-manager, enjoying back-to-back promotions from the Sydenham’s Football League (Wessex) Premier to the Southern Premier Division.
With the weather continuing to be very mild it’s going to be a very pleasant afternoon of non-league football at the Black Gold. The club have announced details of the segregation that will be in place for this fixture. Particular attention needs to be paid to parking as we will not have full use of the school car park.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.