Blues look for upset at Dorking
Blues will look to provide a shock when they travel to Bostik League leaders Dorking Wanderers, on Saturday.
The Surrey side are nine points clear at the top of the table with 65 points from 31 games, having won eight straight games and are unbeaten in 11. Seven of those games have been away from home, but Wanderers have scored 19 goals in their four home wins.
Wanderers side finished 14th last season with 58 points from 46 games, but have spent heavily over the summer, and they also had a good run in the FA Cup, beating Hartley Wintney and Leverstock Green before bowing out in a replay against Gloucester City. They did even better in the FA Trophy with wins against Sevenoaks Town, Tonbridge Angels and Poole Town before losing to Carshalton Athletic.
The sides met on the opening day of the season, and Jamie Cureton’s second half goal saw Blues mark their return to the Isthmian League with a point. Opening their Bostik League campaign by holding Wanderers to a draw.
The first ever meeting of the sides saw the points shared with the visitors, the better side before the break while the Blues having struggled then improved greatly after the interval.
The Dorks (as they probably aren’t known) strengthened their squad this week with the signing of ex-Blues’ striker Elliott Buchanan from Kingstonian, and the former player-of-the-year will face Stortford for the third time this season.
Wanderers are not the club who piped Blues to promotion from Isthmian Division One in 1993, but one formed in 1999. They “absorbed” their neighbours the summer of 2017 and have made rapid progress since their formation.
They shared at Dorking’s Meadowbank ground before the ground was upgraded in £5million redevelopment which included an artificial pitch, and renamed Meadowbank Park. After back-to-back runners-up spots in Division One South, they found life a lot tougher in the Premier Division but did reach the third qualifying round of the both the FA Cup and Trophy before bowing out against Concord Rangers and Havant & Waterlooville respectively.
