Marine looking to bridge the gap

Swindon Supermarine hope to get back amongst the front runners for the play-off places as they host Slimbridge in a rearranged league fixture at The Webbs Wood Stadium on Tuesday night (kick off 7.45 pm) writes Nick Taylor.

With several games recently postponed due to the bad weather, Marine currently find themselves sat eighth in the standings, but a win against third from bottom Slimbridge could see them catapulted up to sixth and ahead of Saturday’s visitors Wimborne Town.

The two sides originally met back on Saturday 18th November but the match was abandoned late on due to a ‘serious’ injury sustained to Slimbridge forward Marley Thomas, with Marine’s Joe Sheppard receiving a red card for the incident in an unsavoury encounter played in pouring rain with the scores standing at 1-1.

Under the guidance of Manager Freddy Ward, Slimbridge have found success on the road easier to come by than at home, with more losses at home than any other side in the league but have only tasted defeat on six occasions out of fifteen away from Gloucestershire and arrive on Tuesday night off the back of three straight defeats.

With the recent heavy snow thawing and constant rain on Monday, if the game does go ahead then conditions under boot are going to be somewhat wet and heavy!

Marine interim manager Lee Spalding is keen to see the fixture played, despite several injury problems in his squad, “I want it to be on and I’m looking forward to it. They are a hard working team and we must match their work rate and more or we’ll get beaten! Slimbridge are very workmanlike and our players must be mentally prepared to be ready. I watched them recently against Cirencester Town, they are similar to Shortwood, getting players behind the ball.”

Read More at: Your Sport Swindon