Hinckley AFC play their final away game of the 2024/25 United Counties Premier South season with the trip to Easington Sports on Saturday.
Just over eight months after Hinckley opened their journey at step five with an away win at Eynesbury Rovers, Joe Conneely’s side will face their final road trip of the campaign in the Oxfordshire spring sunshine.
It’ll round off a season away from home that started with two wins from two, at Eynesbury and GNG Oadby Town, but just two further wins have followed since.
And Hinckley will want to finish that away campaign with a fifth victory to build on last week’s win at home to Northampton Sileby Rangers and take further momentum into their final two home games.
With injuries still biting, Conneely is set to lean on the Under 18s squad again after the youngsters featured heavily in the last couple of games – including Keaton Blackbird’s goal on his first senior start last week.
The opposition
Easington started the season brightly, and were ninth at the end of November as the Banbury side eyed up a possible play-off run.
But they’ve been on a rotten run since – picking up just eight points from their last 17 games in the league and slipping to just outside the relegation zone.
A defeat to Oadby last week, the side just behind them, closed that gap to just one place and one point and Easington are in need of points to guarantee their place at step five again next season.
That said, wins over Rugby Borough, Daventry Town and Coventry United have shown that they are more than capable of mixing it with the sides towards the top while their home form (22 of their 28 points have come at Addison Road) has been good.
Leam Howards is their leading scorer with 13 – indeed he scored the equaliser when Hinckley and Easington drew 1-1 at Kirkby Road in August, the day that Joe Obi played 45 minutes in goal.
Key information
Easington play in red and white, so Hinckley will be in our purple away kit for one final time this season.
Easington play at Addison Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 9DH.
Adults: £6
Concessions: £4
Under 16s: Free
