Sports News

Sports NeWS June - July 2021

South Liverpool FC celebrate promotion

30 years since they left the semiprofessional ranks and 10 years since the club moved to the West Cheshire League, South Liverpool FC have gained promotion to the North West Counties. They will be playing in the Northern Division next season after the recent announcement by the Football Association. Along with Ilkley Town from West Yorkshire, South Liverpool finished top of the eleven candidates who had applied for promotion in the North West of England. The club’s first team were surprisingly eliminated in the semi-final of the West Cheshire League Cup by local rivals, Marshalls, by 6-3. This was only a month after the team had finally won the previous season’s cup competition, the shortest time any club had ever held the prestigious Pyke Cup. The team lie three points clear at the top of the first division table and with only a game to go, only a weird

The first team in our new training tops sponsored by Utilita, April 2021

combination of results involving the team and their nearest rivals, Mossley Hill, will deny them the league title. The final game at Maghull on Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday will hopefully provide a perfect send-off for the team. Many of the club’s teams will carry on playing into June with the promise of further silverware. Two of the club’s teams were denied places in cup finals by the curse of the penalty shoot-out, the open-age reserves and The Sunday veterans first team. The Saturday veterans first team lost a crucial title decider to St Aloysius but successive wins consolidated runners-up position in their first season in that division. The Saturday veterans reserves are currently second in the second division and their final league match will probably decide whether they remain there. The club’s youth team have to rely on other results to win the league but face Litherland Remyca in the final of the league cup. Finally, the club’s third open-age team, having already clinched the first division title, have made progress in the league cup competition to the semi final stage, to be played in June.

Peter McShane rising for a header in our game at Mersey Royal

Season finally fizzles out for ‘Croft

By Mick Titherington

What a year and what a season. The pandemic has affected every aspect of life, and football has been no exception. Lockdown restrictions led to the suspension of the season and left clubs idle. For some time, it was touch and go whether the league and cup programmes could be completed. In the end, the league administrators gave the go ahead for the resumption of fixtures. Clearly the absence of competitive games affected teams quite differently and, consequently, some strange results were recorded. For Stoneycroft, on the one hand, they found themselves on the wrong end of some heavy drubbings, leaking goals like a sieve, and then on the other, showed some fine spirited performances earning them enough points to finish mid-table with hopes of promotion dashed. Clearly the absence of key players and manager Paddy McBride through illness has had an adverse impact but stand-in Andy Wilson has to be commended for steadying the ship. All in all though, it will be a season to forget, for many reasons, not all of them on the field. In football hope springs eternal, so all teams will look forward optimistically to next season with fingers crossed for an uninterrupted campaign. Stoneycroft will be one of them. The pandemic has presented many challenges to clubs and all will look forward to happier times. To all those who have suffered and are still suffering, they are wished a speedy recovery. Our thanks go to medical staff and key workers for the sterling work they have done throughout an unprecedented set of circumstances.