It’s Tigers v Tigers at Ewen Fields this weekend as Gloucester City travel north in the hope of upsetting league leading Hyde.
Hyde team news
According to Gary Lowe on Twitter, a decision will be made on top scorer Scott Spencer’s fitness on Saturday morning. Scott missed last Saturday’s draw with Corby Down due to an ankle injury, but came through Thursday’s training session fine.
Danny Broadbent is the only other known injury doubt, while Adam Griffin has recovered from the illness which kept him away from training on Monday.
Harry Winter will play for Matlock Town tomorrow, with Hyde retaining maintaining the player’s registration.
Recent form
Hyde haven’t won in the 2 games since taking 3 points in the New Year’s Day derby at Stalybridge Celtic, but have actually extended the lead at the top of the table to 12 points since then thanks to rivals dropping points and Guiseley and Stalybridge both being in FA Trophy action – against each other – last weekend.
Gloucester have picked up 6 points from their 3 games in 2012, with the wins coming at home to Worcester City and Solihull Moors. They came unstuck in a 4 – 3 defeat at Histon last weekend, but have scored some impressive victories on the road this season, including wins at Gainsborough Trinity and Altrincham in the space of 5 days.
Gloucester sit 13th in the table, 9 points off the playoff places and 18 points clear from the relegation zone.
Recent meetings
Saturday’s fixture will be the sixth meeting between the 2 sides since Gloucester joined the Conference North in 2009, with Hyde’s first win against them coming in this season’s away fixture at the end of August.
An injured Scott Spencer was replaced in the starting line-up that day by Danny Broadbent, who made his full debut one to remember by winning a penalty – converted by Matthew Berkeley – and scoring a thunderbolt from the edge of the area to help secure a 2 – 0 win.
Prior to this season, the closest Hyde had come to a win against Gloucester was at Ewen Fields in September 2009, but City’s injury time equaliser cancelled out Scott Mooney’s opener. 3 routine wins against poor Hyde sides followed for Gloucester in the 2009 – 2010 and 2010 – 2011 seasons, but they will travel to Ewen Fields on Saturday knowing that Hyde are a very different prospect this year.
See the full match history between the 2 sides on the Hyde FC database.
Opposition view
Jenni Silver of SportGlos gives us the rundown from a Gloucester point of view:
Gloucester’s last trip to Ewen Fields was in February and we won 3 – 0 thanks to a Darren Edwards hat-trick, so from a personal point of view I have quite high expectations. However. as we all know, the fortunes of Hyde have changed a lot in the past 11 months, and we all saw how strong you were when you came to Whaddon Road. But, as our manager pointed out, we’ve done okay away against the Manchester sides so far this season.
Players to look out for from the other “northern” Tigers? Well you’ll remember Darren “Edwardinho” Edwards – he’s our current top scorer, but Will Morford’s hat-trick against Histon last week means he is hot on Daz’s heels.
Jack Harris is back. He broke his leg last season and has struggled for fitness, but will probably slot in at left-back seeing as Tyler Weir’s gone to Worcester on loan.
Another couple of new face for Hyde fans are Lewis Carey, on loan from Bristol City until the end of the season, and Matt Lock who defected to the north from Chelmsford in the summer but didn’t play in the home fixture back in August.
Off the field (and back in Gloucester) the plans are in for our new ground, which you can have a look on the Gloucester City Council website, which is pretty exciting.
And beware – our captain fantastic Tom Webb (making his 472nd appearance for Gloucester on Saturday) has been scoring goals this season. He’s only scored 4, but before October his last goal had been in 2009 against Stourbridge.
Jenni is supporting the Meningitis Trust’s education campaign and is asking Hyde fans to sign the charity’s petition.
Elsewhere
Hyde’s 3 main title rivals are all in league action on Saturday:
Guiseley v Droylsden
Hinckley United v Stalybridge Celtic
Vauxhall Motors v FC Halifax Town
Odds
At the time of writing, Hyde are 4/9 favourites with Blue Square going into tomorrow’s match, with the draw priced at 10/3 and an away win for Gloucester at 9/2.
Photo: Neil Phelps