NON-LEAGUE expert Paul Maddison (@LouthBigDog) previews Wednesday night's televised National League encounter between Havant & Waterlooville and Aldershot.
Havant & Waterlooville v Aldershot | Wednesday 5th September 2018, 19.45
The BT Sport cameras are heading to Westleigh Park on Wednesday night for the visit of local rivals, Aldershot, in what will be Havant & Waterlooville's first-ever live televised National League game.
Neither of these teams have started the season in the way they would have hoped. After eight games Havant sit in 21st place on six points, their only victory coming at a poor Braintree side.
The Shots are just one place and one point ahead of them having won two games, one being against a struggling Dagenham & Redbridge side, the other against Sutton who had a man sent off in the opening 30 minutes of the game.
Both of the Shots victories have come at home – on the road they have lost all four games, managing to find the net just once. Including home games, they are the division's lowest scorers, netting just five times, two of those coming in the game mentioned earlier against 10-man Sutton.
The Hawks, who won the National League South on goal difference last season, picked up more points on their travels than they did at home last term. They've started this season with three draws and a defeat on home turf.
They have been competitive as hosts though; two of the draws were against strong opposition in Fylde and Salford and the loss was to a last-minute goal from a Hartlepool side who look like they're finding some decent form.
At home they have looked fairly solid defensively, in those four games they have conceded four goals, three of them coming from the penalty spot. They have only scored three goals themselves as hosts, mind.
Unlikely to be a classic
It's fair to say I'm not expecting a classic here. There's not a massive rivalry between these two, the only other competitive meeting between the two sides was four-and-a-half years ago in the FA Trophy, but local derbies often tend to be quite tight games.
I'm certainly not convinced by either team going forward, Havant have failed to score in three games so far, Aldershot in five. So with that in mind, the 5/6 available on Under 2.5 Goals with Marathon is where my money is going.
As the game is televised I'm having a little punt on the First Goalscorer market as well. For me, the most likely team to score here is the home side.
Havant manager Lee Bradbury has switched between playing two up front and a lone striker at times this season. The one player that has featured up top in both systems is Nicke Kabamba. He's found the net twice so far this season, also hitting the post against Salford and put in a Man of the Match display last time out against Hartlepool.
The 6'3 ex-Portsmouth striker also had a spell at Aldershot on-loan last season, scoring three times, including the opener in their play-off game against Ebbsfleet.
You can get 13/2 with Betway on Kabamba to open the scoring here and come back to haunt his old side.
Best Bets
Havant & Waterlooville v Aldershot – Under 2.5 Goals (5/6 Marathon)
Havant & Waterlooville v Aldershot – Nicke Kabamba to score first (13/2 Betway)
