Match Preview

ST IVES TOWN v LEISTON - MATCH PREVIEW

Match Information
Pitching In Southern League Central Premier
St Ives Town v Blues
Saturday 5th February
Kick Off 3pm
St Ives Town Football Club, Quattro-Tech Westwood Road, St Ives, Cambridgeshire,
PE27 6DT.
Tel: - 07951 760481.

Game 28/40.

Leiston head to Cambridgeshire to play St Ives Town tomorrow afternoon after a mix bag of results in the last week. A win over Biggleswade Town (1-0), draw with Alvechurch (1-1) and 3-0 loss to Needham Market sees the Blues remain in 7th place.

Siju Odelusi will serve the last of a three game ban tomorrow. In the home fixture against St Ives Town in mid October, the Blues won 3-1. Jake Hutchings opened the scoring but Brett Solkhon levelled early in the second half, however, a Will Davies brace meant Leiston took all three points on the night.

St Ives are currently 15th and have taken 30 points from 28 league matches so far. The sides first met in the 1988-1989 season and lost 4-2 in the FA Vase at St Ives, with Blues U18’s boss Dale Threadkell on target for one of the goals. In 2007, the Blues went out at home to St Ives at the 2nd Round stage, losing 3-2.

In the first league meeting between both sides in October 2018, Leiston won 2-0 away from home, with Christy Finch and Cemal Ramadan both on target for Leiston but St Ives won 2-0 in the reverse fixture. In 2019, the Blues played out a 4-4 draw in Suffolk before losing 1-0 back in St Ives in March 2020.

Blues joint boss Chris Wigger said on Friday: -

‘Tuesday night against Needham Market was a difficult one to swallow and if I’m honest not a performance that I want to dwell on…..but having said that it’s my responsibility to touch on it. To cut a long story short our second half performance was simply not good enough. I feel we were the better side in the first half and created some great chances and perhaps either execution or decision making let us down. If we took our chances then it’s a totally different game. We didn’t and then we failed to compete in the second period and that was nowhere near the standard that myself or Darren expects.
So Saturday gives us a chance to right our wrongs. Tactically the team will be prepared. They will be given every tool to go out and get the result…..but competing is an absolute must! That is on them! That is what is required to win. Lets see where we are come after the ninety minutes on Saturday.‘

Other games in the Pitching In Southern League Central Premier on Saturday: -

Alvechurch v Nuneaton Borough
Banbury United v Bromsgrove Sporting
Barwell v Redditch United
Coalville Town v Hitchin Town
Lowestoft Town v Peterborough Sports
Needham Market v Royston Town
Rushall Olympic v AFC Rushden & Diamonds
ST IVES TOWN v LEISTON
Stourbridge v Tamworth
Stratford Town v Biggleswade Town.

The Reserves host UEA tomorrow in league action and hope to gain more points to go further up the table. UEA are seventh at present with the Reserves 11th. The Blues are at home to Framlingham Town on Tuesday night in a 7.45pm kick off. They wait to find who they will play in the semi-finals of the Suffolk Senior Cup. It will be against either East Bergholt United or Needham Market Reserves.

Blues boss Ryan Honeyman said in the week: -

‘This Saturday we welcome UEA FC to Victory Road , in their first season in the Thurlow Nunn Division. The visitors have had a very strong first half to the season , which sees them sitting just outside the play-off positions.
The game earlier in the season finished at 1– 1 . We rode our luck at times and had Joe Potter in goal to thank for making a number of important saves. We are expecting another tough game this Saturday but it's one we are very much looking forward to and know if we are to get anything from the game we will need to play to our full potential.’

Other games in the Thurlow Nunn First Division North tomorrow afternoon: -

Diss Town v Huntingdon Town
Downham Town v Needham Market Reserves
Framlingham Town v Harleston Town
LEISTON RESERVES v UEA
Norwich CBS v Great Yarmouth Town
Peterborough North End v Debenham LC
Whittlesey Athletic v FC Parson Drove.