Part One of a Busy Bank Holiday Weekend
Basingstoke Town v Parkway | Match PreviewSome description text for this item
Plymouth Parkway are looking to build on their maiden win of the 2025/26 season as they travel up to Basingstoke Town on Saturday.
The Yellows secured a late 2-1 win over then top of the table Gloucester City in the 10th minute of added time thanks to a first Parkway from Jacob Smith.
Speaking on Saturday’ upcoming challenge, Parkway manager, Chris McPhee, said: “We were delighted to get three points on Saturday and get our season properly up and running.”
“For the squad and the club as a whole, it was great to get some reward for some of our hard work over the last kind of six or eight weeks.
“Saturday will just be business as usual. Making sure that we’ve had a good week, the team is prepared, and we’ve had a good training session.
“Last night, the boy hit some very good levels and performed well. They’re in good spirits.
“Looking ahead to Basingstoke, we know exactly what we’re what we’re going to be up against in terms of the opposition, how hard they work, how they like to disrupt. They’ll probably try and disrupt us a little bit, try and press us as high up the pitch as possible, and put us under a lot of pressure when we’ve got the ball.
“We feel as though one of our strengths is being able to cope with different problems, and playing beyond the press, if we need to, and having variety in our play.
“The fact that we’ve picked up a win and have started to see some consistent performances through the squad, we’ll be going there to try to keep that momentum going, to pick up an away win, and continue to build our points for the season ahead of a quick turnaround before Monday’s game against Poole Town.
“Once you get that taste of victory, you want to continue that momentum and Saturday will be no different.”
Basingstoke currently sit 8th in the table, two points ahead of Parkway who sit in 19th, and are one of five teams to remain unbeaten after a 2-0 win against Wimborne Town and 1-1 draws against Evesham and Taunton Town.
Parkway will have positive memories of their last trip to Hampshire, where they secured a 0-1 win thanks to a goal from Callum Hall, starting 2025 off with a bang.
Like Parkway, The Stoke were active recruiters in the summer and have welcomed the high-profile arrival of former Premier League striker Charlie Austin, who spent last season plying his trade at AFC Totton.
Speaking on the challenge of facing a player with such footballing pedigree, McPhee said: “We played against Charlie a couple of times against AFC Totton last season and he’s a physical handful.”
“He’s not as mobile as he used to be in his peak, but his football brain and his experience is fantastic. If he plays against us, we’ll have to be really physical with him, but patient with our physical defending of him. There’s no point in getting too tight or trying to constantly overpower an opponent when they can be really clever and draw foul.
“It’s important that our defenders defend with patience against somebody like him, but we’ve put certain things in place this season to try and help us be a little bit more resilient, and we’ve seen in the last week or so.”
Parkway were without marquee signing Rocky Neal on Saturday after the forward suffered a hamstring injury in the home loss to Weymouth.
The striker now seems set for a spell on the sidelines and could be out from between 4-6 weeks, joining long term absentees Alex Rutter and Shane White.
When asked for an update on the trio, McPhee said: “Alex is recovering nicely. He was at Bolitho on Saturday and was in good spirits. He’s a long-term injury and the time span is unknown at the moment, but he’s making good progress.”
“Shane himself has just seen a specialist, and we’re just waiting for him to get a green light on some keyhole surgery on his knee. Once he has that surgery, we’re looking at him returning back after about four or five weeks, depending on how quickly he recovers.
“With Rocky, it looked quite bad when the injury initially happened, but we believe it’s a grade one hamstring injury. As it stands, we don’t see any further complications with that, or any further issues with any ligaments or tendons around the top of his hamstring. So we’re hoping that there’ll be a relatively simple return.”
When asked on the potential of any new arrivals, the Parkway boss said: “I can’t guarantee anything.”
“We’re always asking questions. We’re always looking and speaking to different people as we have done since I’ve arrived over the last kind of 16-18 months. We’re always having conversations about different players and how we can tweak the squad or support the squad.
“I can’t give anything concrete because, as it always is, it’s just having conversations asking availability and everything else. We haven’t got any plans this week for having any players in but if anything happens later on in the week and there is availability, then we’ll explore it and make sure that that we can afford it.”
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