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Match Preview
Willand Rovers v Bemerton Heath Harlequins
The first of the Southern League fixtures sees Salisbury-based side Bemerton Heath Harlequins make the journey across Stonehenge and the A303 to Silver Street.
The start of the 24/25 campaign all begins this weekend as the time for talking is over and the gruelling battle to get into the Southern League Premier gets underway for 9 months where all roads lead to Malvern on the final day.
For Willand, it was FA Cup success last time round as Western League side AFC St. Austell visited the Silver as Harvey Dorothy put himself on the map with a birthday brace and a place in the next round of the prestigious competition. We will now play Mousehole AFC next weekend as a result of that win.
David Steele spoke to the club media after the game in delight of the win and spoke highly of the man of the match Dorothy whose confidence must be on the up after scoring twice on his Willand debut.
Bemerton Heath’s recent outing was also in the FA Cup but it wasn’t plain sailing in the first fixture as they had to go to a replay with Brockenhurst which then on Tuesday night redeemed themselves with a late victory with Marcus Smith scoring for the Harlequins.
One player to look out for in Bemerton Heath’s squad would be former England U18 defender Pascal Kpohomouh who played for AFC Totton and Weston Super-Mare before making a move to the eighth tier with exciting appearances in the division last season to be picked up by a club higher up the non-league pyramid.
Last time out between Saturday’s visitors, it wasn’t quite the best fixture in the world as BHH found themselves 4 goals on the afternoon in front of a crowd of 136 down in Northern Salisbury.
Both Willand and Bemerton finished around the lower mid-table mark last season with Bemmy’s debut campaign in the division ending in staying up but with Rovers looking to kick on even further throughout the season this fixture is vital to get everything going.
