Poole Town vs Uxbridge – Match Preview
Goals from Shaquille Gwengwe, Harvey Slade and Corey Jordan gave us a comfortable victory at Havant & Waterlooville last Saturday. The win keeps us very much in touch with the leading pack, although Walton & Hersham have opened quite a large gap at the top of the table on 51 points followed by Gloucester City on 43. We are currently in 4th place on 38 points behind Gosport Borough who are on 40.
The club have moved quickly to strengthen our defence this week by re-signing the very popular central defender Ade Olumuyiwa on a short-term deal until the end of January. On signing the contract, Ade said: “I am delighted to be back home at Poole! There was only one place for me, and that is with the Dolphins”.
We are back home this Saturday as we entertain Uxbridge, who will be making their first trip to the BlackGold since their promotion from the Isthmian South-Central League last season.
They have had a good first half of the season sitting in 9th place (P20 W7 D8 L5 29 points) and have lost just the once on the road, the 3-0 defeat at Sholing. They have become draw specialists away from Honeycroft having drawn 6 of their 9 away fixtures to date. They are not on a good run at the moment as they sit in 18th place in the form table with 4 defeats, one draw and one win from their last six matches.
They were unlucky not to take anything from their last match at home to Walton & Hersham, after leading 2-1 at half time they eventually lost 3-2 to a 90th minute strike from Dawid Rogalski.
The Middlesex club is managed by Danny Edwards who started his managerial career at Chalfont St Peter. He has guided the club’s promotion to step 4 and an FA Vase semi-final. Danny is in his 5th season at the helm at Uxbridge, having also previously worked at Chelsea FC and Southampton FC and is an UEFA A-Licence coach.
Last season will live long in the memory of all Uxbridge supporters. After a poor start to the season, one point after four games, The Reds steadily climbed the table, finally finishing as runners-up to runaway Champions Farnham Town. A goal down in the Play-off semi-final against Kingstonian they fought back to lead 2-1, until Eddie Simon equalised ten minutes into stoppage-time to force the tie into extra-time and then penalties. A 100% record saw them triumph 5-4 and a place in the Promotion Final. A record crowd at Honeycroft Horton Road of 1535 witnessed a pulsating final, in which Hanworth Villa took the lead. Once again, the Reds showed great character and resilience to fight-back and George Moore sent a powerful drive into the bottom corner to seal promotion to Step Three of the pyramid.
With a few injuries to contend with Joe Lea and Pat Suraci will be pleased to have had a week’s break to get the team back to full fitness. After the win at Havant, they explained how they had to reorganise the defence playing the lads in unfamiliar roles. Hopefully, the signing of Ade Olumuyiwa will go a long way to sorting out some of those problems.
The forecast is looking much better for the weekend with only drizzle at worst, so it promises to be a great afternoon for non-league football. Our home crowds are rising steadily, and we are now averaging over 700 at our home fixtures.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington