Non-League and Academy football writer

On Saturday afternoon at Ware’s Wodson Park ground, league leaders of the Essex Alliance League Senior Division, FC Baresi, host FC Petrocub London, in a hugely important Essex Alliance League Senior Division fixture, in the context of FC Baresi’s season. In what is quite possibly the biggest game in the history of FC Baresi, tomorrow, the club from Walthamstow only need a point to be confirmed as league champions for the 2023/24 season. Even if they don’t win tomorrow, I believe that if second place Woodford East don’t beat Bakers693, then FC Baresi will still be confirmed as champions of the league, as well as being promoted to step 6 of the non-League system, in the process. For the club who started as a Sunday league team in the 1990’s, it’s been quite a journey into non-League football in recent years, as you can read about in my in-depth January article on the club, on my blog. However, this current season, one in which FC Baresi are aiming to do the league and cup double in, has only seen them lose once in the league all season, out of 26 league matches played so far (they have won 20 of those matches).

This season, an experienced group of players, of which includes top scorer for FC Baresi in the league, centre-forward Murat Karagul (he is currently on 20 league goals), the excellent and creative Marvin Hamilton, goalkeeper Eric Andoh, the very influential Noyan Tajbakhsh and highly skilful winger Junior Appiah, have really helped FC Baresi to excel in the league. Along with a group of younger players (as well as experienced player-manager Romuald Boco) there is a really fine balance to their first team squad. Last Saturday I watched FC Petrocub’s away league fixture against Lymore Gardens, at Parsloes Park, before then going to the other pitch, to watch FC Baresi face Kit Out London. Both sides won their respective league fixtures last Saturday, and FC Petrocub are always a difficult side to face, so the FC Baresi players will know that they’ll have to keep up their high levels/standard of performance, tomorrow. The fixture on Saturday, which starts at 15:00pm, will hopefully get a good crowd, for this big and historic game of football, for FC Baresi. I will be doing a match report on the game.

FC Baresi play an effective and entertaining style of football, and their passing game has proved to be too difficult to defend against, for other clubs in the league this season. The club who finished in second place in the Essex Alliance League Senior Division last season, play football at a step 4 ground, and so therefore know that they’ll be promoted to step 6 for next season, if they win the league. Woodford East have done really well to make FC Baresi wait this long to win the league title, but in my opinion FC Baresi greatly deserve to win the league. They won’t, however, be relaxing just yet, even if they do win the league tomorrow. As FC Baresi face Haringey Borough’s Under 23 side in a semi-final tie of the Essex Alliance League Senior Division Cup, at the end of the month. Could they do the league and cup double this season? Well, for now I’m sure that the coaching staff at the club will just be focusing on securing the league title tomorrow. However, regardless of what happens at the end of the season, FC Baresi have undoubtedly been one of the very best footballing sides at step 7 of the non-League system, this season.