Match Preview

Bishop's Cleeve start their Southern League Division One West campaign on Saturday with one of their longest away trips to Wimborne Town who finished 11th in the league last season, their highest ever finish.

There will be a sense of de ja vu for the Mitres who started their league campaign at Wimborne last season, however, manager Steve Cleal will be hoping for better than the 4-1 defeat at The Cuthbury last time although Cleeve won the most recent tie 4-0 at Kayte Lane back in November.

The Mitres look set to be without regular skipper Kirk Layton who continues to recover from an ankle injury picked up against Wnatage in preseason meaning Chris Pates will once again deputise. The only other absentee for Cleeve will be Jack Oldham meaning manager Steve Cleal will be able to take a full squad of 16 players down to Dorset which could potentially see as many as 10 players make their competitive debut for Cleeve.

"It's been another summer of transition but I'm happy where we are with the squad" said Cleeve manger Cleal who starts his 4th season at the helm.

"Again I've assembled a young squad with some exciting prospects and we've got some experience and age around so it's a good blend.

"It seems ironic that we're travelling down to Wimborne again the first game of the season and having kept a lot of last year's squad Matty (Matty Holmes the Wimborne manager) will be expecting an improvement on last year's highest finish for them so he will have them fired up again to get off to a good start!

The Mitres will be hoping for a first win on the opening day in Cleal's tenure having lost two (Stratford & Wimborne) and drawn one (Marlow) in the past three seasons and, having not won away till the end of September last season against Barnstaple, what better way would there be to start the season than a win in Dorset.

You can follow the match live on the club's official twitter account @BishopsCleeve