First Team
Isthmian League South East Tue 3 March Oaklands Park
Chichester City
  • Haitham (12', 44')
2
Ashford United
  • Purcell (11', 30')
  • Stone (14')
3
2-3

Having finished 4th last season The Nuts & Bolts were defeated in the Isthmian League South East Division play-off final by Horsham so will naturally be looking to go one better this time around.

They made a flying start to their league campaign winning their opening 5 fixtures, however both their league outings in October yielded no points leaving them in fourth position but with games in hand on those above them.

The two sides could have already met last week after the Kent side were drawn against Chi’s conquerers Barton Rovers in the FA Trophy first qualifying round. Rovers progressed courtesy of a 2-1 victory at Homelands.

The Chichester defence which has been fairly mean of late will have to be aware of United hitman David Smith who is the league’s joint top scorer with 10 goals in 7 games, including a four-goal haul in the thrashing of Three Bridges in August.

Chi sit two points behind their opponents having played the same amount of league games and will be using this fixture and their next league outing at high-flying Sevenoaks Town as a gauge as to where they are following promotion last season.

Having taken life at step 4 in their stride so far they’ll be hoping for a positive return from these two fixtures to cement their place at the top end of the table.

City manager Miles Rutherford will continue to be without forward Callum Overton who undergoes surgery on his knee injury this week.

Cory Heath and Matt Axell who were both withdrawn during the 0-0 draw with Hythe with minor injuries trained this week and look set to be available.

Kick-off at Oaklands Park is 3pm with admission prices £8 for adults, £4 for concessions, £1 for Students/16-18-years-olds, while under-16’s go free.