Next up – Barton Rovers
Tuesday, 18th November at Sharpenhoe Road, Barton le-Clay, Beds. MK45 4LQ
Pitching in Southern League, Divison One (Central); kick off 7.45pm.
Admission
No information available.
Our opponents
Founded in 1898, Rovers first enjoyed consistent success in the South Midlands League in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. In this time they won the championship eight times and were never out of the top three in a period of eleven seasons. League success was translated into cup football with an FA Vase final appearance at Wembley and two semi-final defeats. They also made it to the first round of the FA cup in 1980/1. By then they were members of the Isthmian League, a level they have occupied ever since although they were transferred across to the Southern in 2004/5. Like us, they have lost two promotion play-off finals.
Form guide
Rovers are a lot like us with one point fewer from the same number of games and sitting one place below Ware just outside the play-off places. They didn’t suffer their first league defeat until the end of September. A recent run of five games with just two points dropped was ended on Saturday by defeat at Marlow. Three-nil down before Ryan Neufville was sent off they rallied to pull a goal back from Alfie Warman.
Ware’s point at home to unbeaten Leighton on Saturday was a morale boost as the club goes through a dip induced by injuries. Unfortunately Finlay Titchmarsh broke his hand in that match so joins the list of those unavailable for Tuesday and beyond. That said the approach shown on Saturday was excellent. More of that in this game has to be the aim especially as we face difficult trips to Biggleswade Town and then Stotfold in our next two matches.
Previous Meetings
There have been 43 previous games with Barton including the first in November 1982. So, pretty much one a year on average since then. We won that Isthmian League game 2-0 at Buryfield with goals from Phil Rex and Gary Robinson. That result set something of a trend with eleven of our meetings, that’s 25%, ending 2-0 to one or other of us. Draws haven’t been that common, just five with five goals each. Of the remaining 38 matches we have won 18. Despite the deficit both sides have scored 63 goals in all. Last season we won the home game by 3-2 (Ben Siggers, Stef Georgiou and Mitch Hahn) but lost the away game. The score in that game? Two-nil of course.
Commentary
Pete Hill of 90minuteslive will be at the match. Commentary starts at 7.40pm and is available at 90minuteslivefootball.mixlr.com/events/4670398.
Match officials
Our referee for this game is Jamie Stevenson who took charge of our opening league match of this season at Leighton Town, a 4-1 defeat. Hopefully he’ll see a better performance this time. The assistant referees are Mark Bright and Ben Bright, related or a coincidence?
