MATCH PREVIEW: Hampton & Richmond Borough vs Chippenham Town | National League South | Saturday 15th February 2025
Gary Horgan’s boys are back on the road this weekend as they head to The Beveree Stadium to take on Hampton & Richmond Borough.
In the Bluebird’s most recent game under the lights at the Thornbury Surfacing Stadium they made it a third win in five games, inflicting a 2-0 defeat on fellow mid table battlers Chesham United. A comfortable game in the end for the home side, Chippenham came flying out the blocks and took the lead inside the fourth minute thanks to Joe Andrew’s perfectly weighted pass found Tom Mehew through on goal. The latter has been flourishing from playing in a more advanced midfield role recently, keeping his composure on this occasion as he notched home his seventh goal in all competitions this season.
The game was done and dusted late on in the second half with Mehew and Andrews linking up with passing once more. Andrews, having recently secured a move to Peterborough United for the summer, squared the ball across to Harry Parsons who could not miss from inside the six-yard area. It was HP’s eleventh goal of the season in all competitions.
Those three points against the Generals on Tuesday night could prove to be a bit of a confidence booster for the Wiltshire outfit heading to the Bevree Stadium, which in fact is a ground where the Bluebirds have never won before in their history. Just the six games played there since the two sides have been in the same league together ever since 2017, Chippenham tasting defeat on 5 occasions against the Beavers away from home.
The last time these two met in the capital it was a tough one to take for us , after going ahead in the first half through a Tom Owen-Evans goal at the back post following Craig Fasanmade’s headed pass, the hosts struck back early on in the second half, this time Mason Bloomfield heading in the equaliser at the back post before the centre forward was there again to haunt the visitors in the 95th minute with a header from a rebound off of a Will Henry save. Gary Horgan’s side would have felt so hard done by that day.
Speaking of Will Henry, he is the only player on both teams to have represented the pair of them in his career. The shot stopper spent a very brief time on loan with the Beavers from his boyhood club Swindon Town in early 2018. Henry made just four appearances, playing against Chippenham in fact at The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium in that crazy 3-3 draw with Shaun Jeffers being the scorer of a late equaliser for the away side as they broke the hearts once again of Mark Collier’s blue army.
Two players to watch out for in the Hampton and Richmond squad are James Roberts and Mauro Vilhete, both players are currently on eleven goals in all competitions for the Beavers, and I’m sure they’ll be looking to add to that tally on Saturday against our boys.
A very tough game awaits Chippenham away from home at a ground where the notoriously have a bad record at in recent times, however we have seen surprising results a lot this season in the National League South so there’s no reason to say the away side can’t go to Hampton and pull off a historic and famous victory.
COME ON YOU BLUEBIRDS!!!
