Champagne Day for the Fours?
It’s odds on this Saturday that the Men’s fourth team will guarantee their promotion into Division 2, still with a couple of games to go.
After their win last week, Captain Neil “Man-Mountain” Lake (pictured left) and his team are eight points clear of 3rd placed Cambridge South, with just three games to go.
A win away at Ely City 2nds (a 3pm pushback) on Saturday afternoon will therefore definitely guarantee the promotion. Even a point is probably enough too bearing in mind their superior goal difference which was massively boosted after their 11-1 win last week, where veteran Joe Lester bagged 6 goals – not bad for a Vegetarian!
This does appear to be the only City team to be promoted this season, but it is a very important one that next season put them in a tough league, with opportunities to stretch the young players in the team further, amongst the considerable weight of experience that is in the squad too.
The Men’s 1st XI, after their demolition of a struggling Norwich City team will have a tougher task away to Bedford. Win four goals last week, forward Tom Pinder (right) will be brim full of confidence, but City will need that clinical finishing to continue to make sure they breach the traditionally miserly Bedford defence.
Although City’s promotion ambition is well and truly gone, it is still important for the team that they make sure they finish in the top three. Although there were very high hopes this season for the ones, looking at the last two times we dropped out of the National League, it has taken much longer to rebuild. Perhaps against that backdrop, City should take some heart and not see the season as such a failure.
The Ladies 1st team were disappointed to lose to Dereham last week, but their task to avoid relegation is becoming a little clearer now. They need three wins from their final three games to guarantee staying up, but if one of those wins is against St Ives next weekend, it is only two wins needed.
With all three teams below them to play, and already relegated Pelicans the first up at Bretton Gate on Saturday, the girls will hopefully take their first step to safety in that game. It is a 1pm pushback, so hopefully in the prime slot of the day, the Ladies get the support they deserve and a roared on to success.
The other big game for the Men is the 3rd XI game against already promoted Cambridge City 2nds. The development team have struggled a little over the second half of the season, but this is an opportunity for the young and old within the team to demonstrate that they can compete with the best. The pushback is 2.30pm, directly after the Ladies 1st team game.
The full fixtures list:
