Bridge Road is not the place to be if you are of a nervous disposition this Saturday as we are taking on promotion rivals Aylestone Park with a 2pm kick-off. Both sides have a place in the end of season play-offs in their sights and, with only four points separating us in the league table, we are likely to be in for a highly stressful afternoon of unbearable tension and non-stop nail-biting, but it’s a game that no genuine Stutes fan would want to miss.
The Leicester-based side started out last July as one of the favourites to win promotion after being play-off finalists in each of the last two seasons. Like their more illustrious neighbours from the nearby King Power Stadium, they have had a troubled season. But far from having to live in the shadows and feed from dustbins like the luckless Foxes, Aylestone Park’s chances of success this season are still very much alive. A win on Saturday will put them right back in the hunt for a top five place and have all our promotion rivals looking over their shoulders with trepidation. Aylestone were beaten 2-1 at Atherstone Town on Tuesday night, which means they are still two league places and four points behind us in the table having played one game fewer. As such, they are a side we will definitely need to out-gun over the remaining seven or eight games of the season if we want to keep our dreams of promotion alive.
The question is which version of Aylestone Park will we be up against on Saturday? Will it be the Aylestone Park that were level on points with Nuneaton Town up until mid-October and were undefeated in their first thirteen games of the season, or will it be the Aylestone Park that lost seven games in a row and failed to collect a single league point between 1st November and mid-January? They have regained some of their form from earlier in the season, but they are still a side that can win 6-2 at Moulton, then lose 0-5 at home to Lutterworth Town ten days later. It must be infuriating for their fans, let alone their management team, to see them flip between being potential league champions one week and no-hopers the next. But whichever version we see on Saturday, we need to send them back home pointless.
The Stutes will gain confidence from knowing we have already beaten Aylestone Park this season. Our 1-4 win at the Gary Lineker Pavilion was one of our best performances of the season with Connor Barnes, Jordan Foster and Luke Kenny sharing the goals between them. Connor is now fourth in the league goalscorer’s table alongside Aylestone Park’s Louis Samuels, who is also on 25 goals for the season to date. Samuels is one that our centre-backs will therefore need to keep in their pocket for the full 90 minutes on Saturday.
We are delighted to have Shaun Thomas Plumbing and Heating Ltd as our match sponsors for this game and to have the Histon Hornets supporting us on mass. A larger and somewhat louder crowd is expected, so it might be worth arriving a little earlier than normal to be sure of securing your usual seat in the grandstand. Admission will be at the usual rates of £10 for adults, £6 for concessions, £2 for 12 to 17-year-olds and accompanied under 11s admitted free of charge.
The following day on Sunday 15th our exceptional Ladies side play host to Newmarket Town Ladies in the Semi-Final of the Cambs FA Women’s Invitation Cup. The Ladies would very much appreciate your support so why not make a weekend of it and cheer them on to another cup final. Kick-off is at 2pm.
