TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom looks ahead to the NLS game

TWO CONTENDERS

The top of the NLS table is as tight as a drum, and this encounter sees 3rd take on 5th, and with only 4 points separating 1st and 8th, teams will be literally jockeying for position throughout the afternoon! This is another decent test for the Gulls at home, and after 3 wins on the trot, we look in exactly the right mood to take on the Boro. United did enough on Tuesday night, often sloppy with the ball but clinical enough to beat Horsham, however Paul Wotton will be quick to point out that Saturday’s opponents could punish any mistakes and that performance levels will need to be higher. With a much bigger crowd in attendance the lads should need no extra motivation for this one, an entertaining game awaits!

THE LINE-UP

Sam Dreyer automatically comes back into the line-up, and so will Cody Cooke if fitness allows. Paul Wotton described the striker as 50/50 for Saturday, and that’s a concern. In fairness to Brad Ash he did score on Tuesday night, but Cooke is a key man for this United side, and brings a lot more to the table. Fingers crossed he’s ready to take his place upfront, as his influence on our performances is a major one. Otherwise Oscar Threlkeld will most likely continue in the absence of Lirak Hasani, whilst Omar Mussa and Will Jenkins Davies will be encouraged to support the strikers to make things happen. Tactics wise there’s been some successful tinkering in recent games between 4-3-3, 3-4-3 and 3-5-2, and that’s a credit to Paul Wotton for developing his players and the formations available to tackle different challenges.

KEEPING THE FORTRESS INTACT

Can the Gulls stay unbeaten at Plainmoor until the New Year? Our home form has included too many draws this season (5 out of 10 games), but hopefully the players are starting to get used to the expectancy of the Yellow Army and use it to inspire them further in the coming months. After the nosedive in attendance on Tuesday night, there will no doubt will be a much larger crowd on Saturday ready to push the Gulls on, in what feels like a big match.

THE OPPOSITION

Spencer Day’s Farnborough FC team sit in 5th position with 36 points from 20 games, and could well be in play-off contention until the end of the 24/25 season. Their squad includes veteran winger Ricky Holmes who scored the winner against the Gulls in August and has 8 league goals so far this campaign, and also skilful attacker Richard Chin who tore TUFC to shreds at Dartford last season. A glance at their overall record shows great form at home (9 wins out of 12), but not much to shout about away (2 wins out of 8), and that’s something they’ll need to improve on if they want to be pushing towards the top of the table. But in the meantime, let’s hope United can heap more away day misery onto the Boro this Saturday, and step into Xmas with another 3 points!