St Ives Town travel to Leamington tomorrow as they start their festive football programme.
After Saturday, the Ives host Kettering Town on Boxing Day which is then followed by a trip to Stamford on New Years Day.
The trip to Lemington will be a tough one for the Ives as they look to return to winning ways after suffering three straight defeats at the hands of Telford, Stourbridge and Hitchin. Leamington are one of the in form teams in the division, and have only lost one of their last 10 league matches. That coming against current league leaders Needham Market on 5 December. Since then, they have drawn their last two matches against Barwell and Mickleover. The Brakes currently sit third in the table, but have played more games than most of those around them.
Leamington v Ives – Team News
The Ives travel looking to return to form. They looked to be on course for an important 3 points against Hitchin last Saturday only to lose the game 2-1, with the winner for the visitors coming late in the match. Boss Ricky Marheineke will be hoping to have some more players available over Christmas as the likes of Josh Tomlinson and Aaron Smith were missing last Saturday.
The reverse fixture
The two teams have already met this season. It was back on 26 August, and the Ives suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat.
Boxing Day Preview – Ives v Kettering
A bumper crowd is expected at the Quattro-Tech Westwood Road on Boxing Day as the Ives host Kettering Town. It will be the third time that the two teams have met this season. The reverse league fixture ended in a 1-1 draw in August. Meanwhile, the Ives gained a 3-2 victory in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy when the two sides were paired together in October. Like the Ives, Kettering endured a difficult start to the campaign, but have gradually hauled themselves out of the bottom four and head into Christmas having defeated the likes of Mickleover and Halesowen in recent weeks. Both sides will be looking for a big 3 points to give them some real breathing space between them and the bottom four as they head into the new year. Supporters are reminded that kick-off at the Quattro-Tech Westwood Road on Boxing Day is at 1:00pm.
As usual, there will be updates across the club social media channels over Christmas along with match reports and post match reaction and highlights.