AFC Sudbury captain Reece Harris believes latest Stowmarket Town meeting could provide psychological significance ahead of potential play-off meeting
It may be the fifth time they have faced each other this season but AFC Sudbury captain Reece Harris has warned Stowmarket Town’s players to expect the unexpected at The MEL Group Stadium tomorrow (3pm).
Sudbury go into the top four Pitching In Isthmian League North Division clash motivated to respond to mid-week March league and cup defeats to their manager’s and a good number of their own players’ former employers.
The 1-0 loss at Greens Meadow on March 7, in their game in hand, had realistically killed off hopes of clawing back the ground lost to leaders Hashtag United after a 3-2 reverse in their top-two clash a few games prior.
The Old Gold & Blacks then inflicted further misery on Rick Andrews’ team by coming from 1-0 down to knock them out of the Endeavour Automotive Suffolk Premier Cup in last Tuesday’s home quarter-final tie 3-1.
But after recently-installed player-manager Chris Casement’s fourth-placed side halted Hashtag’s 21-game winning run on Saturday, Harris has hinted that the Yellows could mix things up in a bid to get their revenge.
The Sudbury skipper, whose side had knocked them out of the FA Cup preliminary round back in August following ex-Stow player Ollie Brown’s extra-time winner in the away replay, said: “There have been a few weird games with them recently that they’ve obviously come out of on top of both.
“We have played some good stuff in both games though so it will be interesting to see if we approach the game probably a little bit differently to the other two.
“In the first (March 7) game we played some really good stuff. They defended well and they took their goal really well and we just couldn’t get back into the game at their place.
“At our place we went 1-0 ahead and seemed to be in control for a five minute spell and again, fair play to them, they came back into it and got two quick goals which killed us a bit and a good one from Kane (Munday) getting the third.
“It will be really interesting to see how they approach it too.
“But it will be a good game with a good atmosphere and potentially a play of what could even be a play-off final.”
A last-minute winner from Nnamdi Nwachuku, adding to his 25th-minute opener that was equalised before the interval by Connor Deeks, sealed a 2-1 win away to Gorleston on Saturday, moving AFC to within six points of Hashtag, following their defeat at Stowmarket.
But Harris, who believes Nwachuku is one of the best strikers across the non-league game, revealed momentum for the play-offs and finishing second for home advantage is still very much the team’s main focus.
“To be fair we’ve resigned ourselves (to the play-offs) as the games have gone on in their fantastic run – I don’t see that being beaten in our league for a while so fair play to them,” he said.
“Obviously it was great to see they lost at the weekend as it makes the gap a little bit smaller but with there only being five games left there hasn’t been too much talk about them slipping up at least a couple more times, to be honest.
“It has been more a case of us just looking to get wins and see where that takes us as momentum and finishing the highest for the home advantage is the two things you want heading into play-offs.”
He added: “We want to win as many games between now and the end of the season as we can and like I say, we’re playing much better stuff now.
“We seem to be in a bit more of a rhythm so hopefully we can be the side to break Stow’s little run as well which would one, be handy for going into the play-offs and two, just good to do as it’s a local derby.”
