Well, this Saturday marks the return of the Hawks to The TS Stadium, the last time Havant came here was the very first day of our very first season in the National League South after both teams were promoted into the division with Chippenham winning the Southern League Premier and Havant & Waterlooville crowned champions of the Isthmian Premier in 2016/17. That day Chippenham bemoaned a lack of composure in front of goal and we failed to take our chances against Havant who that year would go on to miraculously secure promotion to the National League winning the National South on the last day with a dramatic win against Concord to narrowly pip Dartford to the title. 

Fast forward a few years and the clubs are back in the same division however, very different ends of the table. Havant are chasing a 2nd National League South title and currently lie 4th in the league 11 points off top however, with 3 games in hand it's all to play for at Westleigh Park right now. A weekend slip to leaders Wealdstone going down 4-2 after leading twice will surely see Havant touchdown in Chippenham very keen to pile more misery on the Blue Army with another 90th minute concession costing the Bluebirds all 3 points against Dulwich on Saturday at Champion Hill. This unfortunately all too familiar story for the travelling supporters meant heading back to their respective homes for the first time with Chippenham in the relegation places as results conspired against us to leave Chippenham in the drop zone. 

So Saturday's game becomes important again for all the wrong reasons. A win could propel Chippenham from 21st to 18th and leave us only 3 points away from 15th such is the nature of this league. However, defeat (and that seems very likely when the form book is taken into account) and we could find ourselves in a good amount of trouble with games against Dartford, Hemel and Maidstone all providing massive tests before games against Welling and St Albans which is where I think our season will be defined. Dartford have found form under King as we thought they might, Hemel whilst not looking good are getting results and Maidstone will be seeking retribution for the game at the Gallagher, take Havant into that and I would suggest we would be lucky to see 3/4 points comes from that spell (despite 3 of those being home games). We need to scrap for everything now, every single point is going to be vital, every goal, every mistake is going to be under the microscope. Cook has been tasked with keeping Chippenham in the league and the majority felt we were already going to do so under Collier so for the new regime to now guide us down in the 17 games given would be a real kick in the unmentionables to the supporters and no doubt the board. 

Havant will bring with them the usual threats, a lot of ex league players that are maybe into their golden years such as Fogden and Kedwell and ridiculously talented players such as Ayunga, Magri and Deacon that make up one of the very toughest sides in the league. Again former Bath City and Chippenham tormentor Anthony Straker will prowling down the left hand side looking to get balls into the box. 

In my opinion and seemed to be a general consensus of the majority of Chippenham supporters in attendance, we handled this lot very well last time out at their place. They didn't look like this all conquering, feared team that many assumed Havant would be given their financial clout and league standing however, we still didn't get the job done. We can feel hard done by that a very dubious penalty and a stonewall offside went against us that day but that is football. The scoreline still read 2-1 Havant despite the referee claiming to have made a mistake, despite their manager stating we deserved more, we still ended up coming away pointless. We can handle this lot again. Kedwell is a big lump of an unfit striker and his sole contribution these days is cheap tricks and gamesmanship and he can strike a penalty I guess. Fogden will try and run things from the midfield spraying passes left and right to bring the full backs into the game. Neutralise Fogden, the car has no engine. Keep Ayunga quiet and most people seem to have his card now in terms of what he is bringing and there is no reason we cannot test this defence again. Not forgetting in the first half at their place, we could have easily been 2-0 at the whistle had we taken two clear cut chances.

My heart says that Chippenham will pick up the win here to really lift the mood around the camp. My head tells me however, if I had a tenner left in the bank and had to place a bet, it would be going on Havant so let's set Heart vs Head and go for a 2-2 draw to continue the unbeaten run under Cook. 

COYMB