Weekend Preview 25th April

The First team are the only team at home and find themselves up against Shortwood United Reserves for the first time this season. Indeed, with regard to playing Shortwood, it will be a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous for, having not played the team from Nailsworth since the final day of last season, almost exactly a year ago, we then go on to play against them twice in 2 days!!! Incredibly, it is nearly 20 months since Shortwood last played at Cheltenham Road, as they made their last visit to us on Saturday, 15^th September, 2007 – a day on which we gained our first point in Division One of the Northern Senior League for over 7 years. The 1-1 draw that day was obtained courtesy of Simon Delaney’s first half goal. Seven months later, when we visited Shortwood on a Wednesday evening to complete the season, Simon scored two more to add to other goals scored by Andy Murray, Rick Redfearn and Scott Saurin as the side secured a 5-1 win. This season, Shortwood United’s first team is waging a concerted assault on the Hellenic League title, and a possible place in the Southern League next term, and finds itself just two points behind League Leaders Hungerford Town with only two games left to play at the time of writing. Their final game of the season is at home to Chalfont Wasps on Saturday but they seem to need Hungerford to mess up big time in order to get their hands on the League title. The Reserve team, meanwhile, has lived somewhat in the first team’s shadow and as if to serve to emphasise the point, has enjoyed its two most impressive victories of recent months on days when the First team has not been engaged in Hellenic League action. The 1-0 win at Broadwell and the 4-2 victory over Brimscombe at the end of March were followed up by a 4-0 Thursday evening success over Cheltenham Civil Service at the beginning of April but this excellent sequence was then mirrored by three consecutive defeats, a run that included a 1-0 defeat at Civil Service just 2 days after the 4-0 win and in which they failed to score until they beat Brockworth Albion 3-0 at home last Saturday.

The Reserve team will be hoping to take a psychological advantage into their return fixture with Division Two League Leaders Whaddon United Reserves on Saturday, having beaten the same opposition 3-1 at Cheltenham Road last weekend. That defeat was the first time since 29^th November that Whaddon had failed to take all three points from a League match and the team’s first defeat in Division Two since they lost 3-1 at home to Apperley & Tewkesbury Dynamos in September. For the Reserves, it was the second successive 3-1 win over a fellow member of the Division’s top three in the two games that immediately followed the club’s availability crisis over the course of Easter and it can only be wondered what might have been riding on the game this weekend if the defeats that were suffered during that period, to 5^th placed Winchcombe and 6^th placed Gala Wilton, had been avoided. However, following the 1-0 defeat of Brockworth Albion on Tuesday evening, the Reserves are now assured of at least second spot in Division Two and will be eager to put pressure on Whaddon United Reserves in their last two games by emulating their performance of last weekend and returning from Whaddon Rec with all three points. If they were able to gain a second successive win over the League Leaders, it would mean that both teams were level on points at the top of the Divison going into the last week of the season. However, Whaddon do have a game in hand and, also, a significantly superior goal difference thanks to some of the ridiculously inflated wins they have managed to acquire over the course of the last month, adding 25 goals to their difference thanks to just three wins – 10-0 over Northway, 7-0 over Dowty Dynamos and 8-0 over the same Brockworth Albion side that was able to push the reserves all the way last Tuesday even though they had been reduced to 10 men. It truly is a funny old game at times

The third team complete their fixtures in Division Five with a trip to play Minor Charity Cup Finalists Apperley & Tewkesbury Dynamos III in the somewhat displaced surroundings of King George V Playing Fields. A&TD3 elected to move to Cheltenham Borough Council’s largest pitch providing facility at the turn of the year, when they were informed, by the authorities controlling the use of their preferred home pitch at Tewkesbury School, that the location would be unavailable until mid March even if it did stop precipitating before the end of January. A&TD3 are, now, entirely certain of their Division 5 place next season, even though they have failed to ever raise themselves above their present position of 9^th all season but they do have the Minor Charity Cup Final to look forward to, even though they are scheduled to face the all-conquering C & G at Petersfield Stadium on May 5^th. To get there, they first had to put paid to the Third team’s hopes of cup glory and, in doing so, they became the only side this season to leave Cheltenham Road victorious after an encounter with the third team. That Minor Charity Cup second round match was played in December and was settled on a penalty shoot out after the thirds had palpably failed to convert their early dominance into a representative score line and suffered as a consequence. Only 1-0 up at the break, the visitors pulled the game back level and then won the shoot out hands down as the game went straight to penalties at the end of the 90 minutes. Coincidentally, 1-1 was also the scoreline when the two sides met at Cheltenham Road in the League at the beginning of November, on another day on which the third team should, probably, have taken rather more from the game. They went into the break a goal down and, with the wind now at their backs, camped out in the visitors half throughout the second period but found the A&TD ‘keeper in inspired form as he kept out everything that was thrown at him. In the end, it took a goal from Kev McCrea to salvage a point from what was, at that stage, the side’s fourth League draw in a row.