THE NAMING of Yeading's Johnson Hippolyte as the Ryman Premier Division's manager-of-the-month for August/Septem-ber comes as no surprise to the man who plans to knock him off his lofty perch at The Warren this evening (7.30).
Eastleigh boss Paul Doswell admitted: "From the reports I've had, Yeading are the strongest side in this league - we're in for a tough one tonight."
Eastleigh, though, are in rich vein of form, having gone seven league and cup games unbeaten and climbed to eighth in the Ryman table. Such is the closeness of the league, however, that one slip could send them tumbling. Just five points separate third and 18th spots and Doswell said: "We went up six places by beating Staines on Saturday, but if we lose to Yeading and teams around us win, we could go falling back down again."
Eastleigh welcome Chris Collins back from an infected ankle tonight, but Ryan Ashford (knee strain), Martin Beck (bruised foot) and Nicky Banger (sciatica) are doubtful.
Salisbury, fifth to bottom following Saturday's 0-0 stalemate with Dover, welcome first-choice goalkeeper Kevin Sawyer back from a three-match suspension at home to Northwood tonight. It will be new assistant manager Barry Blankley's first game in charge now that general manager Nick Holmes has returned to America.
First half goals by Dean Holdsworth and Neil Sharp got Havant & Waterlooville back to winning ways against Lewes last night - but it could all have gone horribly wrong for the Hawks in a dramatic last ten minutes.
Dave Leworthy's side, seemingly cruising towards a Conference South win, got an 80th minute reprieve when Lewes had a goal disallowed for offside against Francis Duku. The East Sussex visitors, who eventually scored through sub Lee Newman deep in injury time, protested that two Havant defenders had bundled the ball into their own goal after Duku had powered in at the far post.
Havant got the perfect third minute start when Holdsworth headed in a deep cross from the impressive Gavin Jones and changed around 2-0 up when Sharp drilled a low 20-yarder into the bottom right-hand corner just before the break.
Havant's Hampshire Senior Cup tie against Eastleigh is at West Leigh Park on Monday November 1 (7.45pm).
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