MATCH PREVIEW: Chippenham Town vs Billericay Town, Sat 13th Nov 2021

Simon Lawrence previews our upcoming National League South game against Billericay Town at #TheTSStadium.

HUGE WEEK AT HARDENHUISH

After the dramatics of last weekend’s 3-3 draw against Dartford, we return to #TheTSStadium welcome Management, Staff, Players and Supporters of Billericay Town FC to Wiltshire for this Vanarama National League South fixture.

For the 4th time in as many home fixtures, at the time of writing our opponents are coming to Chippenham rock bottom of the National League South with our opponents from Essex heading into this fixture off the back of 4 defeats in a row and this will ironically be our 4th attempt
at beating the team at the basement of the league at home.

Sadly, for Chippenham this is something in our previous 3 we have not managed to achieve with defeats to Welling, Hemel and a late equaliser from Braintree meaning we had to settle for a solitary point last time out at home. However, as previously mentioned a 3-3 draw against Dartford where Chippenham seemed to have the better of the game will provide muchencouragement for the home supporters that they may finally see their Bluebirds secure a home win.

Billericay will be buoyed coming into the game with the announcement today that they have like ourselves dipped into the loan market (And we will get to that) to secure the signings of both Shaq Coulthirst and former Chippenham Midfielder Josh Smile on loan from Boreham Wood and Maidenhead respectively. Both are available for tomorrow’s fixture and will be adding to Billericay’s squad as they attempt to start clawing themselves up the league and no doubt will be looking to start tomorrow against a Chippenham side struggling to find their feet at The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium.

Manager Mike Cook has been a very busy man this week with several changes at the club in the last few days. Firstly, everyone at Chippenham would like to extend thanks to both Marlon Jackson and Ross Stearn who have both departed the club this week by mutual consent. This is not a decision that any club looks forward to making, even less when it’s due to budget reasons but such is the nature of the beast at this level of football and hard decisions have to be made. We would all like to wish Marlon and Ross the very best for their futures in and out of the game, terrific lads and will be missed around the place.

We would also like to register our thanks to Forest Green Rovers who for the last 4 months have entrusted us with Harvey Bunker. Harv has been recalled by FGR and went straight into the side against Walsall midweek playing 70 minutes in an EFL Trophy win. We have no doubt Harvey will go on to big things in the game and we wish him well back at Forest Green and hope to see him and his family on the terrace sometime soon.

Now, to the good stuff! Mr Cook has been quick to move with his business this week following the departure of personnel, he gave an interview in the Gazette midweek suggesting the loan market would be used to plug holes and see us through until the next review. And my did he use the loan market well. We have started by bringing in Callum Rowe, a midfielder from Exeter City who was previously with Aston Villa.

Callum is quite a big coup for the club considering it was only a short time ago he was playing in the FA Cup 3rd Round against Liverpool, splitting the defence with a pass for Louie Barry ton slot past Kelleher when Villa were hit by COVID and has to play the youngsters. I am sure we can look forward to much from this young talent.

Then came our business with Swindon. On top of the news, we have extended the loan of Ricky Aguiar for another 2 months, we have signed 19-year-old striker Harry Parsons on loan for a month from the Robins. Harry comes to us highly recommended by Swindon after featuring twice in League One last season and 6 appearances this season in League 2. He comes to gain valuable minutes and will provide us with much needed pace in attack. Both will continue to train with Swindon in the week and playing for the Bluebirds at the weekend, but we weren’t done there.

We also announced on Friday afternoon we have signed Cameron Hargreaves and Zain Walker both on loan from Bristol Rovers.  Cam is the son of Chris Hargreaves who currently manages the Rovers Academy and for many this is seen as a big statement of intent. Cam has been a first team regular for the last couple of years at Rovers and they have their eye on him for the future. Zain Walker is another midfielder coming in and will provide both pace and trickery as well as the exuberance of youth in the Chippenham forward line. Zain spent last season on loan in the National League with Kings Lynn and will be looking to hit the ground running at Chippenham.

All signings are available for this weekend against Billericay and this will provide Cook with arguably his biggest pool of players to pick from Saturday. Good luck to all, we hope to see as many of you as possible this weekend. With the international break there is no excuse not to get
ourselves out for some live football and with 5 new exciting, young, football league players on display, there has never been a better time to come along! COME ON YOU BLUES!