Marine eyeing smash & grab raid

Swindon Supermarine head west down the M5 this Saturday to face runaway league leaders Taunton Town in their toughest outing to date writes Nick Taylor.

Interim manager Lee Spalding’s side travel to The Virador Stadium unbeaten in their last four fixtures, having had their home clash with second in the table Salisbury last weekend postponed whilst their opponents were dispatching Yate Town away with a 2-0 victory.

With the most home wins (11) in the Southern League Division One – West, and the best home record with only one defeat so far, the task ahead for Marine is huge, but one which Spalding is greatly looking forward to and believes his side is in with a chance of creating a big upset and at the same time keeping Marine’s promotion push on track.

Taunton have only conceded 26 goals to date and are sitting pretty on the league summit with 68 points, some 12 points ahead of second placed Salisbury, whilst Marine find themselves down in ninth place on 46 points but with games in hand on most of the teams above them.

The last time the Somerset-based team tasted defeat was back on 16th December, a 1-4 home defeat to National South side Bognor Regis Town in the first round proper of the F.A Trophy.

Since taking over from Dave Webb, Spalding has tightened up the Marine defence making them much harder to beat and will again aim to ensure his side cut out any silly defensive errors but will have their work cut out against Taunton’s battering ram of a centre forward, Matt Wright, who’s poached 13 goals so far and is a worrying threat from set pieces and crosses.

Partnering Wright up front is the dangerous ex-Torquay Utd forward Dan Sullivan who’s trickery and quick thinking has claimed him 14 goals and it was Sullivan who bagged the winner in a 3-2 win when the two sides met at The Webbs Wood Stadium back on Saturday 14th October, in a competitive duel with Marine coming back from two goals down (Brad Hooper-pen, TJ Bohane) before Sullivan sealed the win.

Marine’s top scorer Josh Parsons looks to have recovered from an injury scare having trained this week and returns to spearhead his side’s attack but makeshift central defender Joe Sheppard looks set to miss the game with a painful rib injury sustained in training last week.

Source Your Sport Swindon