Following the rampaging second half performance on Tuesday night in the 2-1 win against Alvechurch under the lights at Latimer Park, our attention now focusses on our next home game later today against St Ives Town.

With only 10 games left, 5 away and 5 at home and a potential 30 points at stake, the St Ives match is an important game to win especially as Bedford Town do not have a game this weekend. The other contenders, AFC Telford away at Bromsgrove, Stratford at home to Stourbridge and Halesowen at home to Banbury, have tricky fixtures to negotiate. There are only five points separating the top five. It’s tight at the top.

St Ives meanwhile, visit Latimer Park having not lost in their previous six games and are the league’s draw specialists with five draws (AFC Telford home 2-2; Hitchin away 1-1; Stamford home 1-1; Leiston away 2-2;Redditch away 1-1); and one win (Alvechurch at home 2-1) scoring nine goals conceding eight.

‘The Saints’, under the managership of Ricky Marheineke, lie in a respectable 14th place in the league. In the last six game league overall form guide, they are 13th in all games (8 points from a possible 18), home 16th place (having picked up eight points from a possible 18) and 19th in the away form league (three points from six games).

In contrast, twelve places and twenty points separate the two teams, KTFC, with four wins in the last six games (2-1 Alvechurch; 0-2 Leiston; 1-3 Stourbridge; and 3-0 Barwell;) together with a loss at Bedford 1-3, and a draw versus Halesowen Town 0-0, climbed to second place in the league. The Poppies sit 2nd in the overall form guide have attaining 13 points from a possible 18 (7th place for home form (13 from 18 points) and 5th position for away matches (9 points out of 18). The Saints have often been our bogey team (who can forget the 0-6 game on Boxing Day) nevertheless its another must win game for the Poppies. COYP!

ST IVES TOWN

Season        V        Comp           F-A     Att:    Poppies Scorers

2013-14        H        CLD1C          4-1     536  Clifton, Ogbonna, Moreman, Thorpe                   A        CLD1C          1-0        449     Hamilton

                     H        FAT1Q         0-1     609

2014-15        H        ESLD1C       5-0     645     Hall, Ogbonna, Solkhon.3

                     A        ESLD1C       0-0     537

2015-16        A        FAT1Q        1-0     325     Mulligan

2016-17        H        ESP            1-1     483     O’Connor

                     A        ESP            7-0     495     Brighton, Weir-Daley.4, Howe, Carvalho

2017-18        H        ESP            4-1     499     O’Connor, Howe, Milnes, Hoenes

                     A        ESP            4-3     354     Milnes, Solkhon.2, Richens

2018-19        H        ESLSPC     0-3     653
                     A        ESLSPC      2-1     639     O’Connor, Hoenes

2023-24        H        PISLPC      1-1     871     Lewthwaite

                     A        PISLPC      0-6     512

                     A        FAT3Q       2-3     351     Lewthwaite, Bennett

2023-24        A        PISLPC      2-1     471     Fifield, White

                     A        FAC3Q      3-0     681     Ranger, Andrade, Miller

POPPIES WINS:     10  GOALS FOR:                     37

SAINTS WINS:        4                                        GOALS AGAINST:              22

DRAWS                  3

Played for both clubs (36)                                                  

Junior McDougald, Dubi Ogbonna, Nick Bennion, Will Muzvimbiri, Luke Knight, Kieran Joseph, Dan Crowie, Enol Ordonez, Josh Dawkin, James Hall, Miles Smith, Ben Baker, Munashe Sundire, Jake Newman, Ben Toseland, Tom Knowles, Sam Cartwright, Edmund Hotter, Joe Curtis, Matthew Foy, Nathan Hicks, Nabil Shariff, Brett Solkhon, Liam Bateman, Michael Richens, Paul White, David Bridges, Ethan Johnson, Josh Flanagan, Neo Richard-Noel, Sidik Atcha, Kai Fifield, Silvano Obeng, Gedeon Okito, Kobe Chong, Luca Miller (loan)

ST IVES TOWN

Manager                           Ricky Marheineke             

Ground                             Quattro Tech Westwood Road

Position in the league      14^th – 40pts from 33 games

Leading League scorer    (4) Goerge Munday

FORM (last 5 games)

Overall         DDDDD        17^th in the form table

Home          DDWLL

Away           DDDLL