THOUGHTS FROM THE DUGOUT

Good afternoon, Happy New Year (yes, this really is our first home fixture in 2023), and welcome to Rakesmoor Lane for tonight’s North West Counties Football League fixture against Atherton Laburnum Rovers FC.

It’s nice to welcome the fans back after what feels like an age, our last home game being back on 3rd Dec against Squires Gate. The weather has played its part in calling a number of home and away games off, causing a backlog of fixtures for us to manage. I feel for the fixture secretary the most; I wouldn’t like his job.

Some may call it a winter break, but it has been an extra challenge we’ve had to manage to keep the lads ready. At least we managed to have a couple of games against the reserves down at Furness College, who we’d like to thank. Then we managed to get a good away win against Cleator Moor on Boxing Day, which is always a tough fixture after Christmas.

This takes us to our 4th round FA Vase tie against Bury AFC, where, unfortunately, we showed them too much respect and were not brave enough to play our game. It was always our game plan to still be in the game after 20-30 mins, then try and create opportunities. Unfortunately, the penalty decision went against us. Several mistakes allowed them to control the game, which was frustrating because they were easily avoidable, and I think 4-0 flattered them a little.

Still, we certainly needed to do more to deserve something from the game. Overall our run in the FA Vase has been great for the club and puts these lads in the club history books for the furthest it has ever gone in the competition.

Focus now shifts to the league, with the need to pick up points and put a run of form together to compete for those playoff places. Unfortunately, tonight Reidy and Hodgey miss out through suspension and Tommy and Amo through injury, so we have called upon some of our reserves to step forward. This will be a good chance for those to prove the strength of our overall squad.

WATKIN