PREVIEW – Guildford (A)
The first road trip of 2025 – a coach trip for the team – sees us head up the A31 to face an improving Guildford side who were more than a match in scoring four tries at Water Lane back in October.
MATCH: Guildford v Tottonians
VENUE: Broadwater Pavilion, Guildford Road, Godalming GU7 3DH
COMPETITION: Regional Division 2 South Central
DATE: Saturday 11th January 2025
KICK-OFF: 2:00pm
ADMISSION: FREE
LIVE MATCH UPDATES: On our Twitter/X channel @Tottonians
OVERVIEW:
Every game is important, no matter who the opponent is. It is an age old quote, uttered by every sporting manager, coach, chairperson or captain.
Tottonians have nine games remaining in their league season and are one of the four sides in the shake-up for the sole promotion place. Promotion is very much in our own hands with key games against the top two still to come, Winchester away and Farnham at home.
But that is in the future, the present is as important and this will not be an easy game – especially given Tottonians’ quite horrendous record in Godalming in the past!
Guildford find themselves down in 10th place with just three wins from their 14 games played but they did record a fine 29-28 victory over Chobham at home just prior to Christmas and defeated Chichester away at the end of November. Two wins from their last five games – the other games being against top six sides in Bournemouth, Farnham and Wimborne, is not too bad a return.
So Tottonians travel knowing that they will need to be on their full guard against a good Guildford side who performed admirably back in October when they came to Water Lane and took a deserved bonus point home from a 55-28 defeat as the hosts scored eight tries in an entertaining contest.
Of course, Totts come into this game off the back of the hard-fought win over Chichester last Saturday, winning just 15-3 in the lowest scoring contest seen at Water Lane for ten years – so will be hoping for a better showing this time around.
Kick-off in Godalming is at 2pm – let’s get behind the lads as they continue to keep the pressure on those ahead of them.
TEAM NEWS:
Last Saturday was yet another weekend of trials and tribulations for the coaches as, one by one, players fell like dominoes to the dreaded bug that has ripped through the club and continues to do so.
Cam Flint, Tom Tully and Rich O’Donnell all return to the starting XV having missed last week’s home clash with Chichester after pulling out on the morning of the game with illness while Josh Raqio comes into the team for the first time in a month, having returned from his trans-Atlantic travels.
Robbie Searle is unavailable which means that Raqio slots in at full-back, Ethan Riley moved to fly-half and Rich Buck swings in on the wing.
Oli King makes his return on the bench, joining Kev Raqio and Alex Robinson – while Tom Gregory makes his 150th first XV appearance for the club.
HISTORY and STATS:
There are those of a certain Tottonians vintage that shudder at the thought of playing a league match away at Guildford. It sent shivers down the spine of many a green/white/black wearing man of Totton.
The Guildford bogey, which had run cold for eight straight games up the A31, in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011 twice, 2013 twice and 2015 in London 1 South all came, and all ended the same way with the hosts taking the spoils. Played 8, lost 8. All the while, Totts had won 5 of the eight at Water Lane – was it a curse?
It was finally, finally broken at the ninth attempt on 2 September 2023 in the opening fixture of the new Regional 2 South Central division when the 18 men of Tottonians travelled to do what eight teams before them hadn’t … and they did! A 29-15 victory broke the Broadwater hoodoo.
Of the 14 teams Tottonians have played 14 times or more in the league, our win% against Guildford of just 42.1 is the lowest just ahead of Andover (46.7%) and Effingham & Leatherhead (50%). With just 8 wins from 19 games and a points deficit of 429 to 514 – can Totts up their percentage today?
One win from 9 on the travels, a win% of 11.1 – no side that we have played 5+ times away from home have we got a worse record. Time to make some changes!!!
