Felixstowe & Walton play hosts at The Goldstar Ground this weekend to Basildon United, a club seemingly in free fall, writes Barry Grossmith.
It would be a fool, however, who assumed that here were three points simply for the taking.
A win away in Essex back in November does, nevertheless, allow the possibility of securing a double over The Bees.
Sitting proudly top of the league back in October, Basildon now find themselves in 14th spot on a poor run of form with just one win in their last six games, four goals scored and 19 conceded.
To add to their woes, manager Neil Blackburn parted company with the club earlier this week by mutual consent.
John Sussex has been announced as his replacement and it’s very likely the players will be looking to impress in Saturday’s game.
For The Seasiders, the good run of form continues, extending to just three defeats now in the previous 13.
It’s important too, to take a good performance on Saturday into next week’s Suffolk Premier Cup semi-final at Hadleigh against Thurlow Nunn side Stowmarket Town.
“With the recent upturn in competitiveness and spirit, we need to take our good form into training this week and bring it all to the Basildon game on Saturday,” said assistant boss Danny Bloomfield, speaking after last weekend’s draw away to Grays Athletic.
Felixstowe will have both Joe Bloomfield available again for this game as well as Kye Ruel, whose long-anticipated return from pre-season injury appears to have finally arrived, following his game time for the second string last weekend at home to King’s Lynn Town Reserves.
Seasiders Boss Ian Watson said; “With our current form, we need to be looking at games like Basildon and getting all three points.”
He did hasten to add, however, that, as mentioned above, nothing is delivered on a plate.
Whilst reaching the play offs this season is extremely unlikely, so too is being dragged into any relegation scrap.
Sitting 12th at the moment in Bostik North, a comfortable mid-table finish for Felixstowe this season would be an excellent and welcome outcome after promotion last season.
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