Rothwell Corinthians – of the United Counties League Premier Division South – are the opponents as the Greens look to progress to the Quarter-Final’s of the UCL’s Knockout Cup. The Greens came unstuck at the weekend in Nottinghamshire as strugglers AFC Mansfield recorded only their second league victory all season over a Greens side that struggled to cope with an energetic opposition on a poor surface. The Bulls took the lead in the 11th minute at the Forest Town Arena, when Brontae Wint was on hand to poke home after an initial save from Liam Flitton fell into the attackers path. The Greens task became even more challenging just six minutes later when Akeel Francis was sent off for a challenge, but the away side did show improvement despite a man disadvantage and were level on half-hour when Ryan Rushen was on the end of a Mitch Griffiths cross. Both sides huffed and puffed throughout a second half devoid of any real clearcut opportunities, but it was the home side who delivered the sucker punch when Kamani Wilson was on hand to slide the ball into an empty net in very similar circumstances to the opening goal.

Player/Manager Tom Ward made his comeback after sitting out the previous weekends contest with Selston FC, while Captain Charlie Ward also completed his first 90 minutes since returning from an injury sustained at Melton Town last month - both will be expected to feature again as the Greens look to brush off last weekends’ reversal in double quick time. Doubts remain over injured pair Joe Smith and Rodrigo Goncalves with the latter not featuring again since his short, goalscoring return against Selston a fortnight ago. Jonny Nyantou will hope to see some minutes after he was forced off in a tactical change after Akeel Francis’ red card on Saturday, while Carl Adiku will hope to earn a starting place.

Opponents Rothwell meanwhile are entering their second season in the United Counties League Premier Division South after making the lateral movement when the UCL Premier Division split into regionalised leagues before the beginning of last season. The two sides haven’t met since the 2019/20 season when Corinthians did the double over the Greens - though those two results were scrubbed when the season was null and voided as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The last official meeting of the sides saw the Greens take a 1-0 victory away from Sargeants Lawn with Tom Siddons the goal scorer as the Greens made their way to a 13th placed league finish. The Greens overall record against the Northamptonshire side is good though with 13 wins in 22 contests overall alongside 4 draws and 5 Corinthians wins.

While the Greens were being defeated at AFC Mansfield, Rothwell were registering a first league victory since September 3rd when they defeated Godmanchester Rovers by a goal to nil. They have recorded only four wins in all competitions this season with one of those bringing them to this stage of the Knockout Cup when they defeated Harrowby United 2-1 at the end of October. Ademidon Adefolarin is currently the Corinthians top scorer with 8 goals to his name this season including the all-important strike on Saturday at Godmanchester with five more players behind him on three goals each.

As always we’ll have live match updates on Twitter and once again these are sponsored by the wonderful team at Sleafordian Coaches. Entry is at the reduced price of £3 for adults and £1.50 for concessions. For those travelling the postcode of Corinthians Sargeants Lawn ground is NN14 6JQ and our hosts have advised us that those driving to the ground should follow the signs for parking at the ground and not park on the paths surrounding the stadium.

We hope to see you there as the Greens look to continue to make history!

Words: Oliver Atkin