Eighth plays ninth as Cray Valley (PM) host Sevenoaks Town on Wednesday night only hours after the hectic Easter bank holiday.
Cray Valley are four points ahead of their rivals as kick off approaches and whilst they are three points adrift of Beckenham Town above them a win for Cray will make no difference for the league position except, and perhaps crucially, it will increase the gap from Sevenoaks and the rest of the chasing pack to seven points – At this late point in the season it could be regarded as a lucky seven.
On the other hand Sevenoaks will be looking to close the gap to those above them, namely Cray Valley, and they themselves will open up a six point gap on those behind them.
The two sides meet up after only relatively recently facing each other in the reverse fixture – At the beginning of February Cray Valley travelled to Sevenoaks and the game finished all square with two early goals in quick succession resulted in a one-all draw.
Over the Easter period hosts Cray Valley were again at home as they faced runaway leaders and unbeaten in the league Phoenix Sports. Cray took a first half lead through a Laurent Hamici penalty but were eventually pegged back and the game finished all square – A very respectable result against a side refusing to be beaten.
On the other side Sevenoaks fell to an away defeat, two-one to Corinthian, falling to a late penalty after earlier taking the lead through Stephans Koffi.
Cray Valley have been in good form of late and prior to their draw with Phoenix at Easter the month of March reaped a great record of four wins, two draws and a single defeat – The defeat at the end of March in a nine-goal thriller at Beckenham 5-4 despite being 4-2 up at half time with a four-star first half performance by Hamici.
Sevenoaks, meanwhile, come into this fixture on the back of three straight defeats and will no doubt we looking to put that right and close up on their hosts in the league table respectively.
Follow me on twitter @beckenham_stag and @ksnfootball for live match updates and following the game for the match report.