Five Things We Learned 2023/24 - Gameweek 32
Wed 6th March 2024 | Five Things | By Jay Cooper
1. It's Groundhop day!
Our 2024 Groundhop weekend around the West Lancashire Area took place last weekend, and whilst the wet spring weather didn't allow for a 100% completion as we might've liked, we were still able to see some fantastic NWCFL action over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A full summary is available here, but these are your choice cuts.
Firstly, on Friday, First Division North leaders FC St Helens took another step towards the title with a win over Daisy Hill; with 2 postponements on Saturday, both Padiham and Garstang picked up the slack with 3-2 wins over Longridge Town and Ashton Town respectively; and both Charnock Richard and Euxton Villa were the beneficiaries of dominant wins on Sunday - 7-1 and 3-0, respectively, over Skelmersdale United and Darwen FC.
2. Cup fever
Tuesday night was a time for knockout competitions to take centre stage, and where better to start with a delayed Macron Cup quarter final tie between First Division South sides Droylsden and Ashville. A Benjamin Lowe goal leading up to half time was enough to see the hosts make the jump to the final 4 of the competition. They'll face Chadderton away in the semi-final. This comes off the back of Barnoldswick Town also managing this same feat on Thursday last week with a 2-1 win over Charnock Richard - they will host Alsager Town for a spot in the final.
Elsewhere, in regional action, Premier Division Colne brought FC St Helens back down to earth with a 3-1 win in the Lancashire Challenge Trophy quarter final, and Cammell Laird also progressed to a regional semi-final, beating Vauxhall Motors Reserves on penalties in the Wirral Senior Cup. Finally, Market Drayton Town came just shy of making the TJ Vickers Premier Cup final, losing 3-0 (6-2 on agg.) to Shifnal Town.
3. Bury beginning to pull clear
At the weekend, current NWCFL prem leaders Bury FC strengthened their grip on first place with a 2-1 win over Lower Breck, and second-placed Wythenshawe Town, who currently remain 2nd, faced AFC Liverpool away from home, but were struck down with just a single goal by Tom Croughan and went home empty handed.
With both teams playing this weekend despite the bad weather, Bury still have 2 games in hand on their nearest competitors, after doing what they had to do against Breck, the gap has grown between the teams. Bury know that they can expand that gap even further by winning their rearranged games that they have leftover between now and mid-April. Perhaps what they ought to be more aware of, though, is Wythenshawe FC, who, in 3rd place and just 6 points behind the Shakers, have 2 games in hand of their own.
4. Zakarya Khan't be stopped
Route One Rovers have put on goal-fest after goal-fest in their debut NWCFL campaign, and their high-scoring exploits have seen them push themselves all the way to 5th in the table and be in amongst the play-off conversation as we head towards the back end of the season. A lot of that is down to the efforts of Zakariya Khan - a name that I recognised as a regular goalscorer when I saw what he'd done this week, and a name our lovely statistician Kevin Lawton has also been keeping an eye on.
His 3 goals away at Steeton in Rovers' 4-1 win made for his 32nd, 33rd and 34th league goals of this campaign in the First Division South, and also marked the 6th time this season that he has managed a hat-trick in a league game. He, and the club as a whole, seem to have taken to the competition of the NWCFL like a duck to water.
5. Brocton being made to bide their time
It looked for all the world like the Division One South title was wrapped up at the turn of the year. Brocton were flying at the top of the table, and nothing was going to stop them winning. Instead, something came along to stop them playing. Their gap at the top of the table got gradually smaller over the course of weeks before finally, last week, Stockport Town overtook them, and have since extended their lead at the summit to 5 points.
Why is that? Well, since the run of the year, when Brocton were so comfortable in first, they've only played 4 league games, 2 of which (their most recent 2) have been defeats. Stockport, by contrast, have played 8, and only lost 1. In amongst that run was a 2-1 win over Brocton themselves. Hence, the gap closing. Whilst it might be easy to predict that Brocton will simply win their games in hand, given that the season has a closing date and it's getting closer by the day, the fixture cramming could lead to way more of a struggle for the Badgers than previously anticipated.
Five Things We Learned 2023/24 - Gameweek 32
Wed 6th March 2024 | Five Things
By Jay Cooper
1. It's Groundhop day!
Our 2024 Groundhop weekend around the West Lancashire Area took place last weekend, and whilst the wet spring weather didn't allow for a 100% completion as we might've liked, we were still able to see some fantastic NWCFL action over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A full summary is available here, but these are your choice cuts.
Firstly, on Friday, First Division North leaders FC St Helens took another step towards the title with a win over Daisy Hill; with 2 postponements on Saturday, both Padiham and Garstang picked up the slack with 3-2 wins over Longridge Town and Ashton Town respectively; and both Charnock Richard and Euxton Villa were the beneficiaries of dominant wins on Sunday - 7-1 and 3-0, respectively, over Skelmersdale United and Darwen FC.
2. Cup fever
Tuesday night was a time for knockout competitions to take centre stage, and where better to start with a delayed Macron Cup quarter final tie between First Division South sides Droylsden and Ashville. A Benjamin Lowe goal leading up to half time was enough to see the hosts make the jump to the final 4 of the competition. They'll face Chadderton away in the semi-final. This comes off the back of Barnoldswick Town also managing this same feat on Thursday last week with a 2-1 win over Charnock Richard - they will host Alsager Town for a spot in the final.
Elsewhere, in regional action, Premier Division Colne brought FC St Helens back down to earth with a 3-1 win in the Lancashire Challenge Trophy quarter final, and Cammell Laird also progressed to a regional semi-final, beating Vauxhall Motors Reserves on penalties in the Wirral Senior Cup. Finally, Market Drayton Town came just shy of making the TJ Vickers Premier Cup final, losing 3-0 (6-2 on agg.) to Shifnal Town.
3. Bury beginning to pull clear
At the weekend, current NWCFL prem leaders Bury FC strengthened their grip on first place with a 2-1 win over Lower Breck, and second-placed Wythenshawe Town, who currently remain 2nd, faced AFC Liverpool away from home, but were struck down with just a single goal by Tom Croughan and went home empty handed.
With both teams playing this weekend despite the bad weather, Bury still have 2 games in hand on their nearest competitors, after doing what they had to do against Breck, the gap has grown between the teams. Bury know that they can expand that gap even further by winning their rearranged games that they have leftover between now and mid-April. Perhaps what they ought to be more aware of, though, is Wythenshawe FC, who, in 3rd place and just 6 points behind the Shakers, have 2 games in hand of their own.
4. Zakarya Khan't be stopped
Route One Rovers have put on goal-fest after goal-fest in their debut NWCFL campaign, and their high-scoring exploits have seen them push themselves all the way to 5th in the table and be in amongst the play-off conversation as we head towards the back end of the season. A lot of that is down to the efforts of Zakariya Khan - a name that I recognised as a regular goalscorer when I saw what he'd done this week, and a name our lovely statistician Kevin Lawton has also been keeping an eye on.
His 3 goals away at Steeton in Rovers' 4-1 win made for his 32nd, 33rd and 34th league goals of this campaign in the First Division South, and also marked the 6th time this season that he has managed a hat-trick in a league game. He, and the club as a whole, seem to have taken to the competition of the NWCFL like a duck to water.
5. Brocton being made to bide their time
It looked for all the world like the Division One South title was wrapped up at the turn of the year. Brocton were flying at the top of the table, and nothing was going to stop them winning. Instead, something came along to stop them playing. Their gap at the top of the table got gradually smaller over the course of weeks before finally, last week, Stockport Town overtook them, and have since extended their lead at the summit to 5 points.
Why is that? Well, since the run of the year, when Brocton were so comfortable in first, they've only played 4 league games, 2 of which (their most recent 2) have been defeats. Stockport, by contrast, have played 8, and only lost 1. In amongst that run was a 2-1 win over Brocton themselves. Hence, the gap closing. Whilst it might be easy to predict that Brocton will simply win their games in hand, given that the season has a closing date and it's getting closer by the day, the fixture cramming could lead to way more of a struggle for the Badgers than previously anticipated.
