Felixstowe & Walton go into Saturday’s away fixture at Basildon buoyed by Tuesday night’s 5-1 win at home to Thurlow Nunn side Woodbridge in The Suffolk Premier Cup which saw a hat-trick from Sam Ford together with goals from Jack Ainsley and Miles Powell, writes Barry Grossmith.

Ford will be leaving Felixstowe at the end of the year to pursue a career in Australia with Port Melbourne Sharks. He will certainly be missed.

A few short weeks ago Basildon were flying high in The Bostik North but recent weeks have seen a number of changes at the club alongside a worrying drop in form.

Chairman Lee Connor replaced manager Marc Harrison in a caretaker role recently and has now taken that management position on a permanent basis, with David Maxwell coming in as new chairman.

Importantly, the club has seen a number of players leave the club with a number of new arrivals joining from The Essex Senior League. Among the newcomers is Ben Clarke who was at Felixstowe for a brief spell earlier in the season.

Seasiders’ joint manager Kevin O’Donnell has lamented the inconsistency at the club in recent weeks, both from game to game and within games. On the plus side the team has shown it can defend, it does have goals within it and it can clearly battle in midfield. It’s now a matter of bringing all that together and perhaps adding that killer instinct.

Speaking after Tuesday’s cup win, joint boss Ian Watson said; “There have been lots of changes at Basildon. We need to go there taking something from tonight’s game and have to go looking for all three points. We were fortunate no-one picked up any real knocks this evening and we’ll travel with a strong squad.”

Felixstowe always take good support with them to away fixtures and this game will be no different with the club coach filling up within just a day or two. Most of those fans feel that this side does have something in it and still feel a good run is possible and those play-off places are not that far away.