Hanwell Town vs Poole Town – Match Preview
Our away fixture at Yate Town was postponed on Tuesday evening due to a frozen pitch, so next up for the Dolphins is the trip to The Oliver Connell & Sons Community Stadium to face Hanwell Town. We opened the season with a home game against The Geordies on 9th August when we ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a 27th minute strike from Harvey Slade.
Hanwell are currently sitting in 20th place in the table (P22 W5 D5 L12 20 points) and not enjoying a great run of form. They have picked up just one point from their last six matches and only Tiverton Town on 23 have scored less goals than their 25. They come into the match on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Basingstoke. They have picked up 12 points from 10 matches at home in front of an average crowd of 358.
We know from last season that Hanwell Town will be a very well organised and physical team. We lost the home fixture 2-1 last November and drew 3-3 away in March. They finished the season in a very credible 8th place on 58 points, winning 15 of their 42 matches.
The Geordies are managed by Chris Moore who has a wealth of experience in league and non-league football, he began his playing career at Uxbridge before moving onto Northwood. He then made a name for himself when he signed for Dagenham & Redbridge. He had a brief spell with Brentford before returning to the Daggers and helping them win promotion to the Football League. Chris took sole charge of the Club for the 2022/23 season. In his first season in sole charge, and Hanwell’s first at Step 3, he guided the club to 50 points, 13 points clear of the bottom four, and a 14th placed finish. In their second season in the Southern League, they picked up 48 points, which was enough to survive on goal difference in 17th place.
The club captain is goalkeeper Sam Beasant who joined the club from Beaconsfield in October 2023. He won the Supporters’ Player of the Year and the Southern League Goalkeeper of the Season in the 2023/24 season. His father, Dave, famously was the first goalkeeper to save a penalty in an FA Cup final, lifting the famous trophy with Wimbledon FC in 1988 and won two England caps in 1989.
We will start the match in second place in the table (P24 W14 D5 L5 47 points) but there is something of a gap opening up as Walton & Hersham remain the runaway leaders on 60 points. We have won seven of our matches on the road and earned a total of 22 away points. Gloucester City are in third place also on 47 points, but they have a game in hand. Another of the play-off hopefuls Farnham led 3-1 against Havant & Waterlooville on Wednesday evening only to concede 3 goals between 66 and 79 minutes and lose 4-3. Striker Ryan Seager scored all four goals for the home side.
Poole Town fans will be hoping that IK Hill continues to show his return to form. After a spell of illness which kept him out of the starting line-up he looks to be right back to form and certainly capable of adding to his goal tally of 6.
As we move into the second half of the season, we are in a great place with the lads putting in some terrific performances. We can be assured of some memorable matches as we make that genuine push for promotion.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.