BTFC vs BTFC - Logan Rankin

With the Isthmian Premier League's annual Play-Off Final upcoming and set to be played tomorrow, as Billericay Town lock horns with their big rivals Brentwood Town, it'll be sure to be a thriller. But what will you need to expect, as we look at wrap up the Isthmian, with this high magnitude game? We'll get straight into it starting with the hosts.

Billericay Town F.C. - Season Overview

At the start of the 25/26 campaign, there as a strong emphasis on winning the league, after last season's heartbreak of losing the league by a singular goal, The Blues entered the new season with, ex-manager, Gary McCann. The first 8 games were far from desirable. Losses to Carshalton Athletic and Cray Wanderers, draws to Dartford, and Ramsgate, with only 2 wins, in an 8 game spell, the board let Gary McCann he had been relieved from his first team duties. 

After McCann's departure, Danny Scopes was appointed as the new Blues manager on Monday, 8th of September, and was given a day to prepare for an away trip to Cheshunt. In the first month of Scopes arrival, he achieved a valiant draw against Cheshunt, but a lackluster 90 minutes, against rivals Brentwood Town.

In October onwards, Billericay started finding their feet, and began putting important points on the board. A thumping of Welling United, a deserved 3-1 victory against Datford, and 3 points against Chatham, brought confidence to the changing room. According to Danny Scopes, the club's 1-2 win over Burgess Hill Town made the changing room believe again.

At the start of January, Billericay would go into some unbelievable form, which flew The Blues up the table. In the remaining 19 games of the season, Billericay would go on and win 17 of their next 19 games, a draw against Welling, and only 1 defeat, falling victim to St. Albans City. With the main season concluded, that means The Blues' play-off journey begins.

With Billericay finished 3rd in the league, and Chatham finishing in 4th, that is who would attempt to dismantle The Blues' fine form.

In the Play-off Semi-final, it didn't take long for Billericay to snatch themselves a lead. Charlie Ruff set Jon Benton on the edge of the box, and fired a stunning strike past Nathan Harvey, for 1-0, on the 12th minute mark. It would only take Frankie Merrifield a further 5 minutes to grasp the opportunity for a second. A delicious ball swung in by Jack Evans, and Merrifield rose the highest, and nodded home for 2. Chatham would start to grow into the game more, and they started to have their chances, but the back 4 of Billericay was near impermeable. The Blues' would have seemed to put the nail in the coffin, as MK Dons' loanee, Keon Lewis-Burgess was found on the left wing and knocked the ball to round off a tasty first-half in attack. Chatham finally took their opportunity and snatched 1 back. Non-league gem, Sam Sene-Richardson found himself 1-on-1 with James Holden, and the 19 year-old reduced the deficit to 2. 

The second half was a chance for Chatham to grab 2, and for Billericay to hang on. Billericay took the initiative to defend, and with that Chatham had chance after chance. Merrifield came close to grabbing his second, and Billericay's 4th, but the ball was miraculously clearer from Chatham's goal-line. In the 70th minute, Chatham had hope, Kian Moyes snatched a goal to make it 3-2. And with the game edging away, Chatham almost made it 3-3. But new signing and Zimbabwean international, Macauley Bonne clipped the ball of the line in the 90' minute. That was that.

Billericay Town F.C. - Player Statistics

Well player stats are always a fun thing to look on and with goals being shared across the changing room, it makes for a fun look-in. With one game still to go, these stats aren't final.

The top scorers are close and tight together, but Frankie Merrifield just takes top spot with 15 goals, just over Alfie Cerulli, who comes in as a close 2nd with 14 goals. Elliot Long grabs himself 13 goals, with one of the 13 the winner over Brentwood Town.

Elliot Long, known to the supporters as the non-league Cole Palmer, finds himself, so far, at the top of the assist board, with 9, with Jack Evans following in with 8 assists.

Looking at the stats, and overall impact to the team, it seems Elliot Long has been the standout performer this season, being prominent in the starting XI 39 times, and coming on as a substitute 3 times, and that shows his importance to Danny Scopes.

Billericay Town F.C. - Predicted XI

(4-5-1)

Holden - Porter - Parsons - Scott - Lewis-Burgess - Long - Evans - Benton - Watts - Cerulli - Merrifield

Now that we've looked over Billericay Town, let's move not to far across the county to have a look at The Blues' rivals, Brentwood Town.

Brentwood Town F.C. - Season Overview

Last season Brentwood won the Isthmian Division One North, and immediately started building upon their squad to make a strong challenge in the Isthmian Premier League, 25/26.

The Light Blues started their 25/26 campaign off well, with a draw against Aveley in their first game, soon followed with 8 straight wins, until they found themselves defeated by Canvey Island, by 3 goal to 2. 

Coming into November, Brentwood's month wasn't up to par, with 3 straight losses followed, and only one success against St. Albans City, and in the following month they would add to an emphathic victory with a 2-5 win against Chichester City.

Brentwood would continue onto a relatively okay sense of form for the remainder of the season, and as a whole a pretty mixed bag, but with their season concluding with a 2-2 draw against Chichester, their Play-off Semi-final against Aveley was be the best to pursue.

The Light Blues' game against The Millers started off quite slowly with not many chances coming a begging. Although no goals occurred in the first 45, there was a strong emphasis on finding the first goal from both sides.

It took a long, long time to find the opening goal, as Brentwood would draw first blood in the 76th minute, as Bradley Sach took his opportunity to grab his 6th of his season with Brentwood. Aveleey would push for an equalizer, and they would get just that, as Jesse Nwabueze would beat Aiden Prall with a speculative effort 10 minutes after Brentwood's opener. Now, 14 minutes were added onto the end of the 90 minutes. Aveley would then concede a penalty in the 97th minute, and Ade Cole slotted away with ease to restore The Light Blues' lead. Brentwood would immedietly come out of the traps and score another goal this time awarded to Louie Johnson. Brentwood would round off a great 15 minutes, as they would clock off with a  fourth goal, courtesy of Jesse Olukolu. That means they would travel to Billericay for a chance of National League South football.

Brentwood Town F.C. - Player Statistics

Again with the top scorer not technically fully decided, Daniel Ogunleye comfortably takes top spot with a comfortable 21 goals, with Kymani Thomas coming in 2nd with 13, and Charlee Hughes in 3rd with 10.

With assists, Louie Johnson, clearly takes top spot, helping his team-mates find the back of the net 14 times. Kymani Thomas finds himself in  2nd place once again, providing the penultimate touch 11 times. And finally, Ade Cole grabs 3rd spot, with 9 assists.

Besides from a light mid-season injury, I think it's fair to say that Daniel Ogunleye has been The Light Blues' standout preformer, not only going off of the fact that he's scored 21 goals, but the fact he's started nearly every game in the Isthmian Premier League, 41 in total, and that really emphasizes his importance to the Brentwood forward line.

Brentwood Town F.C. - Predicted XI

(4-3-3)

Prall - Freeman - Kaiser - Cripps - Reid - Johnson - Edwards - Cole - Olukolu - Sach - Ogunleye

Head-To-Head

Just looking at this season alone, it's honours even, with Brentwood grabbing the first derby win of the season, 3-0, with goals from Matt Cripps, Andy Freeman, and Sam Park making Billericay's afternoon quite lackluster. In the return fixture at New Lodge, Elliot Long took his initiative and grabbed his goal in the first half, to grab Billericay all 3 points.

Brentwood go into the game with the more goals scored against Billericay, in oppose to vice versa, but in the play-offs, form goes out of the window and anything can happen. Like last season for example, Dover snatched a place in the play-offs, finishing 5, and went all the way beating 2 of the best teams in the division at that time.

Score Predictions

After everything is taken into consideration, I think Billericay will find themselves promoted, with a tight and emphatic 2-1 victory.