3rd-placed Newport travel to North Hampshire to face Wessex Division 1 bottom club Fleet Spurs tonight.
The Port are currently 5 points behind league leaders New Milton Town but have 4 games in hand. Only 1 club is automatically promoted to the Wessex Premier, with the clubs in positions 2 to 5 having to compete in the playoffs.
The County Town club have been in indifferent form of late, winning their last game on 18th March 5-0 against 3rd-from-bottom Amesbury Town but losing their 2 previous games away to promotion challengers Petersfield Town and Hamworthy Recreation. Last Saturday, their fixture away to Andover Town was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
Fleet Spurs appear certain to be relegated having just won 3 games during the entire course of the season. Spurs have lost their previous 6 games. Saturday saw a 5-0 defeat away to Verwood Town. However, the North Hampshire side have already taken the scalp of 1 Isle of Wight side this season when they beat East Cowes Vics 1-2 at Beatrice Avenue in January.
The reverse fixture at Smallbrook Stadium saw the Port secure a comfortable 5-1 victory.
31st March sees the deadline for entry for the FA Cup and Vase competitions. It is not known what home ground the County Town Club will nominate. Either a home ground or a leasehold must be in place for teams to compete in these competitions.
Work on Newport’s Racecourse Stadium at Whippingham was due to start this month (March). However, to date, there is no sign of any building work happening at the proposed site.
Wessex Division 1 table below:
It was so predictable when they announced work was starting in March, everybody knew that would not be the case.