Match Preview

Next up - Maldon & Tiptree home on Saturday, 12th August at Wodson Park, SG12 0UQ, Bostik Isthmian League Division One North. Kick off 3pm.

Admission - £8 adults, £4 concessions, under 14s free with a paying adult

The league season starts this Saturday and it's a season with a difference. As the FA looks to reorganise the upper echelons of the non-league game it will be the last with 24 teams in each Step 4 division.

We will be moving to 38 league games in 2018/9 and as part of the process to achieve this two clubs will be automatically promoted at the end of the season with a third going up via a play-off between 3rd to 6th placed clubs. At the other end of the table just one club will be relegated and there will be no reprieves.

So, especially with last season in mind, our prime aim will be to avoid bottom place but beyond that we will be hoping to compete against the best in the division to secure a place in the upper reaches of the table.

We should get an idea of our competitiveness from Saturday's game which brings Maldon & Tiptree to Wodson Park. They finished second in the table last season but lost to Thurrock in the play-off final and will be aiming to do better this year. We lost both league matches to them last time round and also suffered a home defeat in the FA Cup when they looked particularly useful.

They have not had the best of build-ups with four defeats and just one win in their six matches but we know all too well that pre-season friendlies don't provide a particularly accurate guide to the real thing. Of more concern to them will be the loss of Liam Nash who scored a crucial goal against us in the away game last season and notched a total of 36 in 47 appearances for the club. He will be with Gillingham this season.

Also missing after his move to Brantham Athletic is Sam Newson who scored three against us last season on his way to becoming Maldon's top scorer. Newson also notched a few against Ware for Needham Market before his transfer to Maldon.

You will learn more about Maldon's replacements for these losses and the rest of their squad in the match day programme which is still £1.50 at the gate. Beyond that you will find the latest "Tractor Tales" amongst the many other regular features. This week Aiden looks at the trials of chairmanship and the changes that will affect the league structure in the near future.

Elsewhere the "Past Programmes" series is no more (unless I get desperate) and will be replaced mainly by a new series based on the 200 different grounds I have visited with Ware. But not on Saturday when there will instead be the first of an occasional series by Pete Miller celebrating the tenth anniversary of our most recent run to the competition proper of the FA Cup .

Our ten latest matches against Maldon & Tiptree:-

Our best and worst against Maldon & Tiptree:-