On Saturday, Hinckley AFC take on Yaxley for the second time in a month, this time welcoming them to Kirkby Road for the first time.
Just three weeks after the 2-2 draw in the sides’ first meeting in Peterborough, the duo meet again with Hinckley looking to extend their excellent home form even further.
Joe Conneely will hope that eight victories on the bounce at Kirkby Road will become nine – and if it does, Hinckley will go into February in the final play-off spot in our debut season at step five.
However, he will have to contend with a few bumps and bruises in his squad. Lucinee Donzo should return after missing last week’s win over Oadby with illness, but Bryan Kohyrelon will miss out for the first time this season while Calum Flanagan, Lewis Rankin, Luke Jones and Keelan Fallows are all managing knocks.
The opposition
After drawing with Hinckley in their opening game of 2025, Yaxley lost to title-chasing Rugby Borough last week to extend their difficult run.
They were on the cusp of the play-offs at the end of October, but a run of nine losses in 11 means they are now 11 points back from fifth-placed Hinckley.
Hinckley, though, are well aware of the threat they still possess having been held at Leading Drove at the start of the month.
Yaxley’s status as the division’s entertainers means that only the top three sides have scored more goals, but only the bottom two have conceded more.
Their top scorer, 14-goal Ryley Nicholson, recently joined March Town but Matt Harris-Hercules has 11 and Julinho Gomes nine.
From the dressing room
“Yaxley are a dangerous team, who leave lots of men up in attack. That means I can see why they concede goals, as you can punish the space they leave at the back, but we weren’t good enough to do that at their place which allowed them to attack in numbers.
“We’ve got to be a lot better on the ball this weekend, and we know they’ll create chances but they will allow us to create too. We’re in great form at home but this is a dangerous game and they can hurt us, so we’ll need to be much improved from the away game.”
Joe Conneely
Key information
Kirkby Road has a large, free on-site car park, and we have both cash and card turnstiles available.
Adults: £7 members, £8 non-members
Concessions: £5 members, £6 non-members
Under 16s: £2 non-members, junior members go FREE