East Cowes Vics travel to Smallbrook Stadium this afternoon (Good Friday) having already secured Wessex League football at Beatrice Avenue next season with 4 games of the season remaining.
3rd-from-bottom Amesbury Town lost 2-4 at home to Andover Town yesterday evening (Thursday), ending the slim mathematical possibility of Vics being relegated.
The Port – who have already qualified for the playoffs – are still in the hunt for the sole Wessex Division 1 automatic promotion place. However, Newport are now 8 points behind league leaders Andover New Street, although they have a game in hand.
Unfortunately, top spot appears increasingly beyond the grasp of the County Town club.
In the corresponding game at Beatrice Avenue in December, Newport won 0-2 in Vics manager Alex Smith’s 1st game in charge. However, Vics are a significantly stronger side than at the end of 2022.
Alex Smith says of the derby against Port:
“On a local scale, the match is more about pride than points.
“These games, for us, are one-off cup finals with pride on the line. It’s a real test for us and an opportunity to show everybody on the Island how far we’ve come.
Article continues below this advertisement “We’ve certainly improved a lot since we played on Boxing Day, so it’s a game that our players are really excited for.”
On Tuesday, Vics suffered a 7-1 defeat at Andover Town.
Alex says:
“Tuesday’s result was a big disappointment, but it’ll add to our desire to perform well and get a result at Newport.
“Of course, they’re a good side, but since I’ve started, our record against the current top 5 is 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss – with the loss being against Newport before we’d ever really got going.
“We absolutely know we’ve got to be at our best – if we can find that, it’ll be a terrific spectacle.”
In Tuesday’s defeat at Andover Town, Vics defender Tyler Greenslade suffered a serious head injury after colliding with the metal barrier surrounding the pitch.
The East Cowes Vis manager has said:
“Tyler’s doing well. His head wound was treated at St Mary’s late on Tuesday, and he went home Wednesday morning.”
Kick-off at Smallbrook stadium is at 15:00.
Wessex Division 1 table below:
Remaining fixtures:
East Cowes Vics: Newport (A), Andover New Street (A), Hamworthy Recreation (A), Verwood Town (H)
Newport (IoW): Vics (H), Fleetlands (A), Andover Town (A), Andover New Street (A), Whitchurch United (H)
Newport’s promotion rivals Andover New Street play the following fixtures:
Andover Town (H), East Cowes Vics (H), Newport (H), Totton & Eling (A)
