Corinthian-Casuals are currently tenth in the table, but are 11 points off the play-offs with only 7 games remaining. Thatcham remain 17th and need to finish above two teams to be safe. Guildford City look like being one of those teams, and some positive news in midweek was that both Eversley & California and Camberley Town lost games on Tuesday night. Eversley were actually defeated at home by Corinthian-Casuals with Clayton Afonso scoring the only goal of the game.

That was the Casuals’s second win since the end of November, during which they have slipped down into mid-table. Back in October they cruised to a 4-1 win over Thatcham at their Armada Group Stadium, thanks to goals from Gabriel Odunaike, Arsenii Protsyshyn, top scorer Andre Coker and Patrick Maia. Kye Williams replied for Town.

During the 2023/24 Isthmian League South Central campaign Corinthians snatched a 2-1 win at the Mettal Stadium thanks to Marcel Campbell’s last-gasp winner. Jordi Ebanda (2) and Sam Tanner scored as the Kingfishers won the return fixture 3-1, with Corinthians eventually finishing bottom of the table.

Prior to that the two sides played together in the 1984-85 London Spartan League, while Thatcham won 2-0 in an FA Cup between the sides in Berkshire in 2000.

Ahead of the game Town manager Cameron Philbey said,

“Today we are in the same position as we were in before our last two home games – in desperate need of the points. However we beat Fleet Town and then Epsom & Ewell so hopefully we can do the same again today.

Two away defeats last week have made the table look tighter again. The Redhill game felt a bit like a point dropped - there was not much between the teams and I felt a bit hard done by to come home with nothing. Meanwhile Cobham are the best team in this division by a country mile. They are a well-oiled machine and their pace and fluidity was too much for us, as it has been for the rest of the league. They are based in an area with a massive talent pool and have clearly invested well in it.

Meanwhile we have struggled a bit lately with availability, through injury, suspension and other reasons. If we consistently had our best squad available then I’m sure we would be competitive in this division. Andy Matthews and Luke Polding should be back available today and we are looking at options up front but it’s difficult to attract new players at this stage of the season.

All the players are acutely aware we are working to the same common goal - to win games and pick up the points we need to reach a position of safety. We did have a six-point advantage over Eversley which has been eroded, but I’m sure both they and Camberley would rather be in our position right now.

Thanks for your support and enjoy the game.”