Boro’s fourth pre-season game is a trip to Sawbridgeworth Town tomorrow evening. Sawbridgeworth’s pre-season results have included a 4-1 defeat at the hands of local rivals Stansted, a 3-2 reverse against Saffron Walden Town, and a 2-1 win over Benfleet.

Although Boro’s first three pre-season games have ended in defeat, all have been close and Saturday’s second half performance at Little Oakley could have snatched a draw, while Fabio Viera’s goal was worth the trip all by itself!

Boro have played Sawbridgeworth Town many times over the years – 36 times in competitive matched – but not so much very recently following Sawbo’s sideways move to the Spartan South Midlands League in which they have played for two of the last three seasons.

Sawbo’s first season away from the Essex Senior League (of which they had been members since 1976) was in 2023-24, a year after they had finished third from bottom in the ESL. Their first season Spartan South Midlands League ended with them bottom of the table, only to be reprieved by various clubs throughout the National League System having folded. They returned to the ESL for 2024-25, finishing 17th, but were back in the SSML last season, ending the campaign in 8th place

The most recent encounters were in 2024-25 when the sides met three times, with Boro winning 5-1 at home in the league and 2-1 at home in the Peter Butcher Memorial Trophy, although the league game at Sawbo ended in a 2-0 defeat.

The teams met in a famous (or perhaps that should be infamous) FA Cup tie in September 2020 when Glenn Tamplin’s much vaunted Boro side were victims of a minor upset, losing 2-1 at Crofters.

Probably the most remarkable encounter between the teams was the Essex Senior League game played at Barking towards the end of the 2022-23 season when Boro romped to an 8-3 win in which Hassan Nalbant and Charlie Morris both scored hat-tricks.

With Sawbridgeworth’s usual home ground at Crofters not available for this fixture, tomorrow’s game will be played on the artificial surface at Astro Leventhorpe School with a 7.30pm kick-off. The venue address is Cambridge Road, Sawbridgeworth CM21 9BY, which is just half a mile from Sawbridgeworth’s regular home venue. Supporters are asked to park at the back of the school, where there is extra parking and where the changing rooms and pitch are.