MATCH PREVIEW: Chippenham Town vs Oxford City | National League South, Tues 6th Sept 2022

Matt Chappell previews our rearranged home clash against Oxford City.

The Bluebirds look to build on their recent home success as they are in league action at The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium on Tuesday, taking on Oxford City. This game is a re-arranged clash after the original tie was postponed due to the events that took place earlier in the season involving Pablo Martinez, who was taken ill in the abandoned tie against Chelmsford City. It promises to be another exciting clash in The Vanarama National League South as Chippenham look to continue their winning run of form at home.

Chippenham come into this game on the back of a dramatic 2-1 victory against Dartford this past Saturday, as they came from a goal down from Maxwell Statham to take all three points and move away from the relegation zone at the time of writing. The Bluebirds levelled the game in the 45th minute as Alefe Santos was nudged in the back and brought down by Jordan Wynter following an attack on goal, and the Wiltshire Pele took the matter into his hands by scoring from the spot-kick, despite Joe Young originally saving the penalty but the ball deflected off his gloves and rolled into the net afterwards and despite appeals from the dugout and squad. The referee gave the ball in Chippenham’s favour.

In the second half, the Bluebirds won a free-kick outside Dartford’s penalty area as Jordan Young was fouled by Jordan Wynter again, with the Dartford No.2 lucky to not be carded for both offences. Up steps Jordan Young and he buries it into the top corner with a superb trademark free-kick to send The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium into a frenzy and send Chippenham back up the National League South table into 15th position. Gary Horgan said in his Post-Match Interview that “We expected a tough game, we certainly got one. Overall we shaded it and deserved the victory”. “If we went into HT 1-0 down, it wouldn’t have been right”.

Oxford City come into this game of the back of a hefty 5-0 defeat to Welling United on Saturday, in a result which has come as quite of a surprise, considering “The Hoops” have been fairly consistent in the past few seasons and most recently especially where they finished two places above the Bluebirds in 5th last season. Reaching the Play-off Semi-Finals to only be knocked out by eventually promotion winners Dorking Wanderers. Manager Ross Jenkins will have to quickly turn his sides defeat if he wants to maintain another play-off position.

Both sides have enjoyed plenty of entertaining encounters over the past few seasons, with Chippenham currently having a 4-1 lead in Head-to-Head results with the most recent being a 1-0 victory back in April 2022, Alex Bray netting in the 47th minute to give Chippenham the win and more importantly 3 points which absolutely contributed to our Play-off success. This will definitely be no easy game for Gary Horgan’s side as Oxford will be coming on Tuesday looking for revenge and they will more than likely be counting on their main man Joe Iaciofano to get them going, the 23 year old enjoyed plenty of success last season, netting 22 goals in 40 appearances, almost getting him the Golden Boot award for his work but Alfie Rutherford took that away with his eye-watering 30 goal season.

Another player to keep an eye out for is Klaidi Lolos, The 21-year-old Greek is a former Bluebirds loanee, who joined two seasons ago on-loan from Plymouth Argyle. In his only appearance for Chippenham, he was red carded in the only A4 Derby game at home against Bath in the final season which was affected by the pandemic, his loan move was not extended at the club and he was released by Plymouth at the start of last season before joining Torquay and eventually Oxford City on a permanent basis this season, and has already netted 5 goals in 5 games, so he will have plenty of momentum coming into this game and will no doubt make an impact on Tuesday.

It promises to be another exciting clash between two sides willing to give it their all for 3 points. We hope to see as many of you as possible pack The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium on Tuesday, if you are planning to make the trip then tickets can be purchased in-advance via our Online TicketTailor site here, or on the gate with Cash/Contactless accepted. Match Tickets can be purchased until 6pm on match-day and each ticket bought online will have a 50p admin charge applied.

For additional information regarding tickets, then please check out our website article for Admission prices and much more.

COME ON YOU BLUEBIRDS!