Reusch First Division Cup Preview - 1st/3rd December 2016
Thu 1st December 2016 | General | By Martin Stewart
This weekend starts extra early with St Helens Town taking on City of Liverpool in their Quarter Final tie on Thursday night.
Everyone, including me, is excited to unwrap the new development at Ruskin Drive, but unfortunately the work isn't complete yet and the Saints have had to rely on the brilliant support of landlords Prescot Cables to stage this match. Due to the EvoStik side's own playing commitments, moving the game forward to Thursday was the only viable option.
For the Purple Partisans at City of Liverpool, that means a second midweek match in three days in the cold frosty November air after their last game against Hanley Town had to be moved back to Monday night due to the interference of Jack Frost (the mythical fairy-tale character not the David Jason TV Detective).
Not that it will bother Manager Simon Burton if his team's performance on Monday, is anything to go by though. COLFC dominated the game against their higher division opponents to run out comfortable 2-0 winners on the night.
For St Helens they will be desperately hoping to get the game played, not just to avoid further fixture problems, but also to give their players a run out after 12 days without a match. The nomadic Merseysiders are in a good run of form having won 5 of their last 6 games, culminating in a 4-0 victory at Eccleshall a fortnight ago.
The other three ties will be played as normal on Saturday afternoon with the undoubted pick of the bunch being Charnock Richard v Widnes.
Both sides are flying high in the league and must count themselves amongst the favourites for this competition. The home side's recent form record has been dented somewhat by three cup exits all to sides from a higher division than themselves. But the margins have all been slender and in that run they have also beaten Premier Division Barnoldswick too. A raft of cup games means they have not played too many league matches of late but despite that they still sit in 3rd place, just 6 points behind the leaders and with 4 games in hand.
Joey Dunn continues to work his magic at Widnes, having lost just once and drawn twice in 14 games since taking over as manager in late September. Victory over Premier Division Winsford United in the Macron Cup on Monday, means they are one of just three clubs (the others being City of Liverpool and St Helens) still in with a shout of both of the league's cup competitions.
This game may be all about the battle of the strikers with Kevin Towey of Widnes and Carl Grimshaw of Charnock neck and neck at the top of the First Division goal scoring table. Interestingly the two sides have yet to meet each other in the league, so this could be the first of many battles to come between these two heavyweights.
You can't speak of in-form sides without mentioning the league leaders Whitchurch Alport, who make the long trip up from Shropshire to Holker on Saturday. Alport have had a mixed bag of results lately, dropping points, as well as exiting the Macron Cup at home to Maine Road.
But they still sit proudly two points clear atop of the division and recent big crowds at the strangely named Yockings Park show that this is a club doing all the right things both off and on the pitch at the moment.
For Holker, the season has been the very epitome of the term 'mixed bag’ with recent defeats to Chadderton (twice) and Daisy Hill being sandwiched by impressive wins over Litherland and Silsden as well as a draw away to Widnes. On paper this should be Whitchurch's but that 262 mile round trip, plus those recent big wins for the Old Boys and a 3-0 victory when these sides last met on this ground back in August could easily swing this tie the other way.
The final tie of the round sees another expense budget busting trip from Cheshire to Cumbria, as Sandbach United travel to Carlisle City. At 276 miles Sandbach will have to travel marginally further than Whitchurch this weekend, but at least all but a couple of miles at either end will be on the M6 making it a touch less uncomfortable.
Having said that, let’s hope both of these games get the benefit of early pitch inspections as the weather starts to take large bites out of the fixture list. Nobody wants to get turned around halfway into a long journey with no game to go to, especially at this time of year when wives are eagerly waiting at home to be taken on impromptu Saturday afternoon Christmas shopping trips.
These two teams met on this ground as recently as a month ago with Sandbach the 3-0 victors. Since then Sandbach have maintained a good run of form although they were 3-1 down at home to Charnock last Saturday only for fog to descend and have the match abandoned…..how's that for a successful late substitution?
After a slow start to their first season in the league, Carlisle have run into some form of late too, having won five of their last six. That run included a 6-0 win over the impressively named Greystoke from the Westmorland Amateur League in the Cumberland Senior Cup, a game in which the visitors - as far as we know - weren't able to call on the services of Tarzan and Jane for the game.
The Cumbrians have now moved up to 9th place in the table and will be looking to this tournament as the carrot to keep momentum going into the new year. All that is left to be said about this game is that as a bonafide 'City v United' clash it could be the last but by no means the least fixture on this weekend's list.
Reusch First Division Cup Preview - 1st/3rd December 2016
Thu 1st December 2016 | General
By Martin Stewart
This weekend starts extra early with St Helens Town taking on City of Liverpool in their Quarter Final tie on Thursday night.
Everyone, including me, is excited to unwrap the new development at Ruskin Drive, but unfortunately the work isn't complete yet and the Saints have had to rely on the brilliant support of landlords Prescot Cables to stage this match. Due to the EvoStik side's own playing commitments, moving the game forward to Thursday was the only viable option.
For the Purple Partisans at City of Liverpool, that means a second midweek match in three days in the cold frosty November air after their last game against Hanley Town had to be moved back to Monday night due to the interference of Jack Frost (the mythical fairy-tale character not the David Jason TV Detective).
Not that it will bother Manager Simon Burton if his team's performance on Monday, is anything to go by though. COLFC dominated the game against their higher division opponents to run out comfortable 2-0 winners on the night.
For St Helens they will be desperately hoping to get the game played, not just to avoid further fixture problems, but also to give their players a run out after 12 days without a match. The nomadic Merseysiders are in a good run of form having won 5 of their last 6 games, culminating in a 4-0 victory at Eccleshall a fortnight ago.
The other three ties will be played as normal on Saturday afternoon with the undoubted pick of the bunch being Charnock Richard v Widnes.
Both sides are flying high in the league and must count themselves amongst the favourites for this competition. The home side's recent form record has been dented somewhat by three cup exits all to sides from a higher division than themselves. But the margins have all been slender and in that run they have also beaten Premier Division Barnoldswick too. A raft of cup games means they have not played too many league matches of late but despite that they still sit in 3rd place, just 6 points behind the leaders and with 4 games in hand.
Joey Dunn continues to work his magic at Widnes, having lost just once and drawn twice in 14 games since taking over as manager in late September. Victory over Premier Division Winsford United in the Macron Cup on Monday, means they are one of just three clubs (the others being City of Liverpool and St Helens) still in with a shout of both of the league's cup competitions.
This game may be all about the battle of the strikers with Kevin Towey of Widnes and Carl Grimshaw of Charnock neck and neck at the top of the First Division goal scoring table. Interestingly the two sides have yet to meet each other in the league, so this could be the first of many battles to come between these two heavyweights.
You can't speak of in-form sides without mentioning the league leaders Whitchurch Alport, who make the long trip up from Shropshire to Holker on Saturday. Alport have had a mixed bag of results lately, dropping points, as well as exiting the Macron Cup at home to Maine Road.
But they still sit proudly two points clear atop of the division and recent big crowds at the strangely named Yockings Park show that this is a club doing all the right things both off and on the pitch at the moment.
For Holker, the season has been the very epitome of the term 'mixed bag’ with recent defeats to Chadderton (twice) and Daisy Hill being sandwiched by impressive wins over Litherland and Silsden as well as a draw away to Widnes. On paper this should be Whitchurch's but that 262 mile round trip, plus those recent big wins for the Old Boys and a 3-0 victory when these sides last met on this ground back in August could easily swing this tie the other way.
The final tie of the round sees another expense budget busting trip from Cheshire to Cumbria, as Sandbach United travel to Carlisle City. At 276 miles Sandbach will have to travel marginally further than Whitchurch this weekend, but at least all but a couple of miles at either end will be on the M6 making it a touch less uncomfortable.
Having said that, let’s hope both of these games get the benefit of early pitch inspections as the weather starts to take large bites out of the fixture list. Nobody wants to get turned around halfway into a long journey with no game to go to, especially at this time of year when wives are eagerly waiting at home to be taken on impromptu Saturday afternoon Christmas shopping trips.
These two teams met on this ground as recently as a month ago with Sandbach the 3-0 victors. Since then Sandbach have maintained a good run of form although they were 3-1 down at home to Charnock last Saturday only for fog to descend and have the match abandoned…..how's that for a successful late substitution?
After a slow start to their first season in the league, Carlisle have run into some form of late too, having won five of their last six. That run included a 6-0 win over the impressively named Greystoke from the Westmorland Amateur League in the Cumberland Senior Cup, a game in which the visitors - as far as we know - weren't able to call on the services of Tarzan and Jane for the game.
The Cumbrians have now moved up to 9th place in the table and will be looking to this tournament as the carrot to keep momentum going into the new year. All that is left to be said about this game is that as a bonafide 'City v United' clash it could be the last but by no means the least fixture on this weekend's list.
