We make a welcome return to the Longwater Stadium at Eslaforde Park this Saturday, to host visitors Heather St. Johns, kick-off 3PM.

The contest will be our first competitive home match since the 1-0 victory over Deeping Rangers on 31st August – Rodrigo Goncalves was the hero on that occasion, sliding home an 89th-minute winner. Since then, we were three weeks without a match, until a return to action on Tuesday 20th September with a fantastic 2-0 victory at old local rivals Boston Town. Unfortunately, The Greens were knocked out of the Isuzu FA Vase last Saturday by another local rival, Newark and Sherwood United. The Highwaymen triumphed on spot kicks after we held them for more than an hour with 10 men after Charlie Ward was dismissed. Goalkeeper Liam Flitton was the star of the show, making numerous saves, including one from the spot, denying Luke White.

As a result of the red card, we will be without the services of Charlie Ward, who will miss tomorrow's contest, as well as those against Skegness Town on Wednesday evening and the League Cup tie at Holwell Sports next Saturday afternoon. We do expect to have the services of the influential Kyle Watkins at our disposal, after he missed last weekend's FA Vase reversal at Newark. Elsewhere Ollie Skinner made a welcome return to the fold after having not made an appearance since the 2-0 defeat to Sherwood Colliery on the 13th August. Meanwhile, Ryan Rushen will be pushing to regain his starting berth, after dropping to the bench for last weekend’s FA Vase tie. He’ll face a real challenge to displace the in-form Jacob Fenton, who did a fine job as an emergency right-sided defender last weekend at Newark.

Opponents Heather St. Johns arrive in NG34 on the back of a disappointing opening 10 games of the campaign. The Saints are winless so far, but have arrested that run with two consecutive league draws in recent weeks. They stole an 88th-minute equaliser at Boston Town to secure their first point of the season, before following that up with a 2-2 draw at home to Kimberley Miners Welfare having been 2-0 down at the break. Like the Greens, the Saints were dumped out of the FA Vase at the first hurdle on Saturday, losing out to Midland League outfit Wolverhampton Casuals (1-3).

As always, we’ll have live match updates on Twitter and once again these are sponsored by the wonderful team at Sleafordian Coaches. Entry is priced at £6 for adults, £3 for concessions and FREE for under-16s. As usual, our matchday programme will be on sale at the turnstiles – look out for a couple of new and updated features inside!

Words: Oliver Atkin