Bemerton Heath Harlequins last visited Thatcham in 2018-19, when the two sides met in an FA Cup Preliminary Round tie. That game finished goal-less, but Harlequins went on to win the replay. A dismal opening period for Town led to Bemerton amassing a three goal lead. Thatcham improved after the break and pulled goals back
through James Tennant and Shane Cooper-Clark, but the damage had been done and Town made an early exit.

While Thatcham are currently ten points from safety, Bemerton are in seventh, three points off the play-off places. Bemerton have lost just once in nine games, that being a 4-1 reverse at Melksham. Since that defeat they have taken four points from home games against Cribbs (2-0) and Bideford (1-1). The game before Melskham, they fired seven past Bristol Manor Farm in which Oliver Balmer scored a hat-trick.

At the end of November the Harlequins scored twice in injury time to inflict a painful defeat on the Kingfishers. Following Kyle Daniel-Spray’s opener, a late Zion Nditi own goal levelled matters. There followed a melee and two red cards for both teams, before Leighton Thomas struck a very late winner.

Following today’s game, Thatcham face a double-header against Cinderford, away next Saturday then home the following Tuesday. Meanwhile the Harlequins have home games against Bishops Cleeve this Tuesday then Exmouth next Saturday.

Speaking ahead of the game, manager Yash Romeo said,

“Our defeat away at Bemerton back in November was probably the one which hurt the most this season, and the boys will be looking for revenge this afternoon. We should definitely have won that one, having led the match for 80 minutes then missing a great chance to wrap the game up, and then Bemerton struck twice in injury time.

We have picked up 1-1 draws in our last two games. Both were tight matches and although we fell behind in both of them, I felt we did enough to win them. We had great chances to score a second against both Melksham and Bideford, but didn’t, and that has been the story of our season.

I am hopeful we can put in another good performance this afternoon and gain a win we so desperately need. Everyone is battling for points right now, as evidenced by Cinderford’s thumping win at Helston in midweek, which helps drag Helston into it and makes the bottom of the table a bit more compact.

All we can do is keep chipping away and working hard. We are keen to reward our young supporters who help spur us on and make it difficult for the opposition with the noise they make.

Unfortunately Sam Tanner has decided to move on, joining a team back in the Isthmian League closer to where he lives. However we should have a new defender in the squad, Shyam Taank, who used to play for Swindon Town and was most recently with North Leigh.”

As usual, a printed programme will be on sale for just £2 at the turnstile, or in the bar beforehand.