Tony Rickson previews Phoenix Sports v Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne continue their tough run-in to the end of the season with a trip up to North Kent to play Phoenix Sports on Saturday.

All their last five games will have been against teams in the top half of Bostik League South, and that run started on Wednesday night when they performed well but ended up losing 3-2 to promotion-chasing Hythe Town.

Phoenix are not involved in the promotion race but have had a very steady season and currently stand 10th in the table, four places above Sittingbourne.

The clubs met previously, at Woodstock in November, when Phoenix won with the only goal of the game.

It was a significant result as Sittingbourne went into that match on the back of an 11-game unbeaten run and only a few nights earlier had enjoyed probably their best win of the season, away to Merstham in an FA Trophy replay.

That defeat sparked an especially poor run of home games for Sittingbourne, as it was another six games before they won again, beating Guernsey.

Phoenix have only won one of their last four games, but that was their most recent, 2-1 away to East Grinstead last Saturday.

That was the day when Sittingbourne beat Molesey 1-0 thanks to a late goal by Sefyettin Akdeniz but the lively winger suffered an injury in Wednesday night’s game at Hythe and was substituted at half-time.

Sittingbourne scored first and last in that game and the home club were complimentary about how well they played, but Hythe, continuing a long unbeaten run, packed three goals into a short spell in the second half to win the match.

Fabrice Blewordah scored his first goal for the club and Kane Rowland, Sittingbourne’s leading scorer, got the other one, recovering well from going off injured in both the previous matches. Unfortunatley though, It was confirmed after the match that Kane Rowland has suffered a broken bone in a hand and it is now likely that he will miss the last few remaining games.

Following the trip up the M2, Sittingbourne play their last midweek game of the season on Tuesday night when Thamesmead are the visitors.