Wingate & Finchley travel to Billericay Town on Tuesday night, off the back of a superb 4-0 thrashing of Tonbridge Angels at Summers Lane. The Blues travel to Billericay having lost only one league game in their last seven, sitting fourth in the form table of the Ryman Premier League.
However, hosts Billericay Town sit in second place of the same table, winning four and drawing two of their last six games – scoring twelve goals. They sit 12th in the League table itself – with 18 points from 12 games whilst Wingate are on 20 points from 13 games, in 9th place.
The hosts’, nicknamed ‘Ricay’, threats lie across the pitch with three players sharing the mantle of top goal scorer – all on four goals; Goldy Capela, Greg Cundle and Quentin Monville. A man Wingate know well, Conor Hubble, is currently on three goals whilst Ricky Sappleton is on two. For Wingate, Reece Beckles-Richard, Billy Healey and Steve Wales all have four goals to their name whilst Sean Cronin is on three.
Despite a leaky start to the season, Keith Rowland’s side have a newfound resilience to boast – conceding four goals in their last seven games, scoring 17 goals in the same time period. With the signing of Claudiu Vilcu, a back four of Ola Williams, Cronin, Vilcu and Ryan Sellers protecting September’s goalkeeper of the month, Shane Gore has proved difficult to beat in recent weeks. So far this season, Billericay have kept four clean sheets to Wingate’s five.
The sides met on the second day of this season, where the Ricay ran out 2-1 winners in a game that was marred by a broken leg for Wingate left back, Tommy Cummings after a horrific challenge. Wingate will be hoping to enact revenge for the result at Summers Lane. Both games last season ended in wins for the Ricay, a 1-0 win at Summers Lane and a 4-0 thrashing on the final day of the season at New Lodge. With both teams in fantastic form and with very similar goal differences, Tuesday night’s affair will prove to be a much tighter contest than April’s humiliation. By Nikhil Saglani