There’s plenty of midweek football action in the Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division with sixteen of the nineteen sides in action.
Highmoor-IBIS, Longlevens and Royal Wootton Bassett Town are the teams not playing and there are some tasty looking matches with Burnham hosting Thatcham Town and Thame United welcoming Bracknell Town.
Of course, the stand out match locally sees Ascot United entertain Binfield tonight at the Racecourse Ground.
Local derbies always get people talking and both sides will be determined to secure the bragging rights amongst the East Berkshire non-league fraternity.
The Yellamen were very quiet in pre-season not giving much away in terms of players joining the club whilst there were very public announcements of players leaving them to join Bracknell, Thatcham and Binfield.
That led to some people suggesting Ascot would not be as strong as last season (*cough* TC *cough*)but they have started very brightly winning two of the three league matches and winning two Emirates FA Cup ties. Indeed, they are our only representatives left in the competition.
Binfield have played one match more than some sides but have won all four of those to currently sit atop of the division and have only conceded two league goals so far.
They also have two former Ascot players in their ranks in striker Matt Jones and midfielder Ross Seldon.
Manager Roger Herridge can welcome James Charlton, Mark O’Connell, Alex Luis and Seldon back from holiday whilst Jake White is now on holiday and there are injury concerns over Asa Povey and JC Etienne.
Liam Ferdinand for the Moles and Charlie Samuels for the Yellamen both have five goals and we are expecting a tight match with those two being possible match winners for their club.
Bracknell
Thame lead the way in the scoring charts with Andrew Gledhill and Lynton Goss both scoring six each whilst Robins striker Adam Cornell has five goals so both defences will need to on top form tonight, something the visitors have not managed too often this season.
Manager Mark Tallentire is still trying to find his best eleven but has been hampered by injuries to Carl Withers, George Short, Lee Boon and Joe Grant at different stages of this campaign.
Rumours are of course rumours until if and when they become facts but here at FootballinBracknell, we’ve heard of five possible new faces for the Robins so the players will be acutely aware of the need to get back to winning ways – although the Robins have added centre-back Alex Rodrigues from Thatcham Town.
Elsewhere, bottom side Burnham face Thatcham Town and unless caretaker managers Luther Blissett and Paul Toms have added any new faces at the Gore then it could be another long night in store for them.
It is also a clash of two former Southern League sides with both Bracknell and Thatcham proving that sometimes you need to fall down a little to stabilise and start to move up again.
Henley Town are also without a league point and they travel to the very unpredictable Oxford City Nomads who can be brilliant on their day but who are massively indifferent too.
The full Premier Division midweek fixtures are:
Tuesday 23rd August
Ardley United vs Carterton
Ascot United vs Binfield
Burnham vs Thatcham Town
Oxford City Nomads vs Henley Town
Thame United vs Bracknell Town
Tuffley Rovers vs Lydney Town
Wednesday 24th August
Brackley Town Saints vs Flackwell Heath
Highworth Town vs Brimscombe & Thrupp