Whitton United midfield maestro Miles Powell is looking forward to hopefully upsetting a few familiar faces this afternoon at Felixstowe & Walton.

The goalscoring midfielder, who enjoyed several successful seasons at Felixstowe, made a switch across Suffolk to join Paul Bugg’s Whitton earlier this season.

Today’s encounter is therefore Powell’s first visit back to a club and ground he has a lot of affection for having played for the Seasiders from the age of 16.

“Felixstowe are a lovely club, and I have many great memories there,” declared the 23-year-old.

“I got on really well with everyone and made some really good mates.

“It’ll be nice to go back and hopefully turn them over.

“I still talk to Cranners (Ben Cranfield), Smyler (Danny Smy), and Dan Davis regularly.

“There hasn’t been any banter yet (about the game), we have a group chat, and I’m sure that’ll get used as the game draws closer!”

Following the trail left from defender Aaran Sheppard’s summer switch from the Goldstar Ground to the King George V Playing Field, Powell switched alliances just a few games into the season as he explains.

“I just wanted a new challenge,” admitted the midfielder, who has scored three goals in 10 league starts for Whitton so far.

“I wanted to try something new and like Felixstowe, Whitton is a great club.

“It’s a nice club to be at, and all the boys are playing for each other.

“I’m really enjoying playing my football here, and for the management team. Buggy is a great player-manager, while Snelly (Glenn Snell, Bugg’s assistant) is a great tactician, they work really well together.

“We had a little bit of a slow start, but now that we’ve found our feet, I think we can maybe push towards a top 10 finish.”

You have to stretch back to September 23 for the last time United lost a league fixture – a 2-1 home defeat to FC Clacton.

Since then, the Ipswich-based side have drawn four and won three of their last seven league games, with a fine 2-1 away win at Gorleston, as well as 3-3 draws against Mildenhall and Stanway Rovers (on Saturday) after finding themselves 3-0 down, the stand-out results.

“Those results against Mildenhall and Stanway, sides who have aspirations of being in the top six, shows just how far we have come,” continued Powell, who admitted he didn’t have his best game in the feisty encounter against Stanway which saw supersub Sam Mead score two late goals to salvage a point for Whitton, having been 3-0 down with 11 minutes to go.

“Players are stepping up when it really matters. Meady (Sam) changed the game for us against Stanway, and players like Ethan Clarke (scorer of the first goal last weekend) are really stepping up to the plate.

“We’ve got some experienced players like Tom Trevivian as well who is helping us, and the whole club is going forward in the right way, and it is very exciting to be a part of.”

Today’s local derby against opposition that Powell sees as having ‘no reason not to mount a serious title challenge’ should therefore be a cracker – with Danny Thrower, who was at Whitton earlier in the season, set to start for Felixstowe.

“Whatever the final result on Saturday, I’m sure it’ll be a good game.

“I’m not sure how Shep (Aaran Sheppard) will feel about Saturday though as he tends to flip between (playing for) the two!” joked Powell.