Loughborough Students vs Long Eaton United
Northern Premier League – Midlands Division
08/02/2025 – 3pm KO

Long Eaton United travel to the Loughborough University Stadium on Saturday afternoon to face a tricky Loughborough Students side in the league.
The Blues come into this fixture full of confidence and belief after scoring 5 goals in the second half at home to Boldmere St Michaels last Saturday.
The 5-0 home win meant that Brad Munn’s side occupy sixth position in the table, only two points behind Anstey Nomads who have two games in hand.

How have the opposition been doing?
Loughborough Students are currently sat in 12th position in the league table, just one of the teams in a tightly contested mid-table.
They are one of two teams sat on 35 points alongside Racing Club Warwick and only five points separates the latter and AFC Rushden & Diamonds who are 17th.
Loughborough are a dangerous side and is a game where Long Eaton will have to be at the top of their game in order to claim all three points.
‘The Scholars’ have had some standout wins coming against ourselves, second placed Corby Town and third placed Sporting Khalsa.
In fact all of those wins happened in a row throughout early December and they went on to extend this winning streak to four when they hosted Coleshill Town on the 21st of December and Quinton Zolani Dlodlo scored in the 91st minute to secure the win for his side.
The form guide puts Loughborough Students 13th. The form guide is a league table which takes into consideration every sides results over their past six games.
Jamie Clapham’s side have lost two games in their previous six, losing their most recent game away against Shepshed Dynamo 3-2 and also getting beat 3-0 against promotion rivals Darlaston Town 3-0 on the 18th of January.
In their other four matches throughout their last six, Loughborough Students have won two and drew two, making their recent form, much like their season as a whole, rather mixed.
Wins against Racing Club Warwick and Grantham Town put six points on the table for them whilst 1-1 draws against both AFC Rushden & Diamonds and Rugby Town added another two.

The Blues’ recent form
Long Eaton only have one loss on their record over the last six league matches, that was a 1-0 loss away at Worcester City on the 25th of January.
The lads go into this one coming off the back of the 5-0 win at home to Boldmere St Michaels last Saturday.
The key victory in this current piece of tidy form was the 3-2 away win at league leaders Quorn.
Wins against Wellingborough Town and Grantham Town add to this, and a 1-1 draw to Hinckley LRFC makes up Long Eaton’s form.

The reverse fixture
As already mentioned, Loughborough earned all three points when the two sides faced each other in early December.
The Scholars went into the half-time break 2-0 up after goals from Halim Bangura and Hussein Issa.
Long Eaton managed to get a goal back in the 88th minute thanks to an Evan Garnett penalty, the Blues pushed to earn a point however failed to do so.

Brad Munn speaks ahead of Loughborough Students away
“We have to be aggressive, we have to be on the front foot, we have to not allow them to play their game.”
“We have to go and win it is three points or nothing. This time of the season it is the business end of the season and we have to be winning games of football.”
“We need to avenge a loss here as well (last time out against Saturday’s opposition), so we go into it using that fuel to fuel the fire and really have a go at them and play our way and be super aggressive with it.”
“Hopefully we come out with three points and two wins on the bounce going into a Corby game is the idea back at home, so we have got two games now back-to-back where we need revenge.”
James Shaw’s words on Saturday’s match
“Results like today (5-0 win vs Boldmere St Michaels) only mean something if you can go and back it up the week after so we need to take each game as it comes and see how we go on Saturday.”

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!

Match Preview: Sam Hargrave.