As the season approaches its climax, Thatcham are eyeing up a top ten finish but will finish somewhere between 7th and 12th. Marlow are battling with Leatherhead for second place and will hope to improve upon last season’s play- off semi-final defeat to Hanworth Villa.

The Kingfishers will be looking to complete the double over the Blues following their opening day victory at the Alfred Davis Memorial Ground. Sam Tanner headed home the only goal as Thatcham gained an unexpected win.

In 2022/23 there was another early-season encounter, as Nathan Jones (now with Marlow of course) scored a late leveller for Thatcham after Curtis Chappell opened the scoring. In the return fixture Mo Ceesay’s goal was all Town had to show for a dominant first-half performance and they paid the price as Louis Rogers equalised.

In the 2021/22 season Devontae Romeo scored a late brace as Marlow won 2-0 in West Berkshire on New Year’s Day. Later in the season Alex Miller scored the only goal as Town snatched a 1-0 win in Buckinghamshire.

Marlow have enjoyed success in cup competitions at Thatcham in each of the last two seasons. Dawid Rogalski scored a hat-trick and Kai Hamilton-Olise added the other as Marlow won 4-0 in a Velocity Cup tie back in August. Last season Marlow were victorious on penalties in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup.

In his programme notes, boss Yashwa Romeo said,

“I want to start by paying tribute to Terry Staines, the Marlow chairman who sadly passed away at the start of the season, shortly before we played there. Not only did he do a lot for Marlow FC, but he showed faith in me and did a lot for me personally. He gave me my first footballing contract, I remember him picking me up from the airport and driving me to a game, he helped me out when I was having a tough time at work... He was a great person, and if he was here today I’d have given him a big hug - which he’d probably have hated!

We’ve had a few close battles with Marlow recently. Our former captain Nathan Jones will be back, while Jay Welch spent four years at Marlow so I’m expecting it to be a bit fiery but friendly. They will want to finish second and we’ll need to keep Dawid Rogalski quiet to have a good chance of taking something. Due to Callum Smart’s suspension Ethan Wilson will deputise in goal. I like giving young players an opportunity and he has done well in the friendly games he has played in.

On Monday we got an excellent draw against Chertsey. We aimed to stay in the game as long as possible and to hurt them down the flanks like we did in the away game. In the second half Harvey saw more of the ball out wide, got in a 1v1 situation and was fouled for a penalty. We had a really young team out there (five teenagers and two 20-year-olds) and could easily have won. Enjoy the game, YASH“