It's our final outing of September this evening as we travel to Hertfordshire to take on National League South new boys Cheshunt.

After the joy of winning returned to the Hamlet in the FA Cup and London Senior Cup victories, it was a heartbreaking return to the league for the side on Saturday as it looked like we would be ending the long losing streak, only for Chippenham's Joe Parker to head home an 89th minute winner to leave us staring at a 2-1 defeat, stretching our winless run in the league to eight matches. However, the defeat on Saturday saw us play some brilliant football, especially in the first half, and it certainly looks like we are turning a corner ahead of our first ever league meeting against Cheshunt.

Dan Smith is unlikely to feature this evening after limping out of the Chippenham game within the first twenty minutes, a foot injury leaving him unable to carry on. He is joined on the sidelines by midfielder Kreshnic Krasniqi, who is serving the second of his two-game ban for his red card in the FA Cup. Josh Hill and Kalvin Kalala remain on the injury list.

Our hosts had a dream start to life at Step 2, the first time they have played at this level, as they fought from 2-0 down to beat Hampton & Richmond Borough on the opening day of the campaign, but these three points remain the only ones they have secured to date, with eight successive defeats in the league since the opening day. The sole victory in that time came in the FA Cup last weekend, as they beat St Neots Town 3-1 at Theobalds Lane. At the weekend, they managed to score three times but still ended up on the losing side, as Tonbridge Angels left as 4-3 victors, with Cheshunt always trailing after conceding the opening goal. They have the division's leakiest defence, having conceded 24 times from their nine games.

We will be bumping into some old friendly faces tonight, in the form of Craig Edwards and Preston Edwards. Manager Craig, a popular figure within the non-league game, was of course our manager prior to Gavin Rose, managing the side in our Isthmian League Division One South days between 2007 and 2009. Craig has enjoyed two promotions with Cheshunt in the last few years. In goal for the Ambers this evening is likely to be Preston, who played for us between 2016 and 2020, making more than 170 appearances during that side, playing his part in our promotion to the National League South and run to the FA Trophy quarter-finals, as well as appearing in two further play-off final defeats during his time at Champion Hill. Remember, No Preston, No Party!

We have met Cheshunt twice before, both coming in the FA Trophy, with the first meeting coming back in the Preliminary Round in 2003, when we beat them 2-0 at Champion Hill. More recently, we faced each other in the Covid-disrupted season of 2020-21, where Gio McGregor, Quade Taylor and Danny Mills were on target in a 3-1 victory. A win for us tonight would be the most welcome end to the month, and could hopefully see us move out of the bottom four for the first time since the beginning of the month.