MATCH PREVIEW: Farnborough vs Chippenham Town | National League South | Thursday 11th April 2024

Matt Chappell previews our away game against Farnborough.

Chippenham Town continue their back-to-back-to-back away trips with a journey to Farnborough FC on Thursday in the Vanarama National League South.

Despite being a goal ahead on Tuesday, the Bluebirds were defeated 2-1 away to Weston-super-Mare. Tom Owen-Evans scored the first goal on the 20th minute, before a controversial goal was given by the referee, despite play continuing for a few moments, before the referee ruled Robbie Wilmott’s corner had cleared the line despite the windy conditions on 44 minutes for the seagulls.

The Bluebirds kept fighting second half looking to get back into it, with the biggest chance coming on 85 minutes, as Max Harris was tested to the limit with stopping 4 consecutive shots on goal from Ed Williams. Aaron Amadi-Holloway, Matt McClure and Tom Owen-Evans. But ultimately, WSM took all three points with a penalty kick awarded with Tom Owen-Evans brought down Keiran Thomas, and prolific striker Reuben Reid slotted it past Will Henry on the 89th minute of the game to win the game for the hosts.

This result all but confirms that Chippenham Town may miss out on VNLS play-off action, with teams above such as Hampton & Richmond and local rivals Bath City with 8 and 9 points more respectively than the Bluebirds with just three games to go for the season.

Our hosts for Thursday Farnborough FC (otherwise known as the Yellows) come into this game off the back of a 1-0 defeat to Maidstone United on Saturday.

Despite this, the Boro were seven games unbeaten during last month and now occupy 9th in the National League South table, just three points away from Hampton & Richmond Borough, who currently occupy the last playoff spot.

Farnborough will be looking to get all 3 points at Cherrywood Road on Thursday as they look to mount a play-off charge with the final three games of the season whereas, Chippenham Town will be looking to finish as high as possible in the National League South table as their status in the league is confirmed for the 2024/25 season.

Chippenham’s Jake Evans and Freddie Grant have both enjoyed spells at Cherrywood Road in their career with Evans spending half a season on loan at Farnborough during his time with Swindon Town, and Grant having two spells at the club with the first coming in 2014-2016 while on loan from Oxford United, and the second coming in 2022 where he played 35 games and scored twice for them in a season where they just missed out on the play-offs.

Chippenham signed Grant from Farnborough in 2023 with Horgan appraising him as “one of the best attacking full-backs at this level”.

As for the ones to watch out for on Thursday, many will remember Aaron Kuhl and Alfie Pavey who scored 8 goals each in 27 and 10 games on loan from Dorking Wanderers and Woking respectively this season, but both recently returned to their parent clubs.

So we’ll go with Oliver Pendlebury, the 22-year-old defensive midfielder who has scored 7 goals in 35 appearances with 3073 total minutes played.

The Bluebirds made four changes to the side when they faced Weston on Tuesday with Matt McClure returning to the squad on the bench after missing the last few games. Aaron Amadi-Holloway, Tyreke Johnson, Caine Bradbury and Ed Williams made way for Tom Owen-Evans, Alex Bray, Luke Spokes and Nat Williams who featured with minutes, but with 2 out of 3 games being played between now on Saturday rotation will be key.

As we look now to the final three games of the season, the players, management, staff and of course you the fans will be proud of another solid season, as Chippenham look to finish as high as possible and build ahead of the 2024/25 VNLS season.

Supporters looking to join us at Cherrywood Road can pre-purchase their match tickets in-advance online and if you can’t make it Dan Blake will be bringing you all the action on Mixlr from 7:30pm (UK time.)

COME ON YOU BLUEBIRDS!!