Page 30 - Bath City v Hemel Hempstead Town - Saturday 7 November - VNLS

NEXT MATCH PREVIEW

Dorking Wanderers The above matches were played long before the
City are back in action on Tuesday evening when formation of the present club who started life in the
they make the 125 miles trip to Surrey to face Dorking Crawley and District League as recently as 1999.
Amongst the founders was present chairman and team
Wanderers, hoping to open their account on the road
after three defeats. manager Marc White and he has helped the club to a
remarkable eleven promotions in just twenty years.
Apart from our ‘local derbies’ at Truro in recent Obviously, the ground has seen many improvements
seasons, this must be the furthest we have been sent to facilitate this rise up through the pyramid and the
for a scheduled midweek league fixture since our neat venue has again been changed since our visit
time in the Conference Premier Division. There is a
full programme of matches during midweek but ours nine months ago with the addition of some covered
accommodation behind one goal. What a shame that
appears to be the only one not involving relatively our supporters won’t be there to enjoy it…
local rivals.
Of course this will be an opportunity to avenge our However we will be able to follow the match as usual
via the BCIR commentary and may wish to supplement
defeat in the play-off eliminator just over 100 days
ago in July. An 80th minute penalty converted by Ryan this with a live stream, details of which can be found at
the Dorking website.
Brunt was City’s only response that day to first-half
goals by McShane and Prior for Dorking, who went MARTIN POWELL
on to lose at Weymouth a week later. Our opponents
on Tuesday will find a very different City team facing
them, as 11 players named in the matchday squad
that day are no longer at the Club! DORKING WANDERERS LOWDOWN:
The Wanderers had given warning of their defensive
strengths in the two league encounters during the GROUND: Meadowbank Stadium
season proper, losing to a solitary Adam Mann goal
here at Twerton and playing out a goalless draw when COLOURS: Red and Blue Stripes
we visited Meadowbank in February. They eventually
finished 7th in the adjusted table, 15.6 points behind NICKNAME: Wanderers
City.
The current season didn’t get off to the best of starts MANAGER: Marc White
when Dorking were knocked out of the Cup by 2019/20 FINISH: 7th
Eastbourne, but three wins from four league encounters
sees them currently in 7th position again. Their one
home fixture was a 3-1 victory over Slough and as
they travel to Dartford today they will be almost as
unfamiliar with their ground as the City players come
on Tuesday evening! And the 3G surface will not be a
surprise as Dartford’s was the only grass pitch we have
played on away from Twerton this season.
I assumed that last season’s fixture was our first visit to
the Meadowbank ground. It was formerly the home
of Dorking FC whom we faced in a Trophy match
at Twerton in 1992, winning 2-0 courtesy of goals
from Graham Withey and Adie Mings. However it
was also the home of Guildford and Dorking United,
an amalgamation which included our old Southern
League rivals Guildford City. Its website states that the
club played at Meadowbank, which we must have Tom Smith in action for City during last February`s meeting with Dorking Wanderers at
the Meadowbank Stadium.
visited in March 1975 when goals by John Fairbrother
and Dai Jones earned City a 3-0 win.
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