And so to the Adverc Stadium in Pershall Park, the home of 'The Eagles' of Eccleshall FC - 'We Play For The Badge & The Oat Cakes - We Are Eccy !!!' Today's North West Counties Division One fixture sees the visit of Daisy Hill FC.
Eccleshall Town FC was established in 1908 but the most successful local team of that era was Eccleshall Comrades, set up in 1918. The Comrades' most famous player was the FA Cup Final scorer and winner (for Wolves) and England amateur and full international, The Reverend KRG Hunt. The club also featured in a curious incident when Stone Christ Church were defeated 5-0. The game ended 10 minutes early when first one ball burst, then another and there were no more available.......
Both clubs became defunct and the current club was founded in 1971 as Eccleshall Town Old Boys, the team made up of locals and staff from Eccleshall Secondary School, where they played their home games.
The Eagles joined the Staffordshire County League (North) in 1979, moved to Pershall Park in 1982 and ascended to the Staffordshire Senior League - now the Springbank Vending Midland League - in 1984. As Eccleshall FC championships were won in 1990 and then consecutively in 2001/02 and 2002/03. With work complete on the stadium the club moved up to the North West Counties Football League in 2003, and several seasons of inconsistency have followed.
The Daisies, or The Cutters, were established in 1894 playing in the Wigan & District League. By the time of World War 1 the club had moved to the Leigh & District Senior Sunday School League and then the Westhoughton League, playing at New Sirs. The club folded before World War 2, but reformed in 1951 playing again in the Westhoughton League but now based at (the adjacent) St James Street & Cricket Ground - they moved back to New Sirs in 1957.
The Daisies then joined the Bolton Combination, which they won four times, before moving to the Lancashire Combination for 4 seasons and then becoming founder members of the North West Counties Football League in 1982.
The club was renamed Westhoughton Town during the period 1989-94, thereafter reverting back to Daisy Hill FC - they have never been promoted or relegated from the North West Counties, but only escaped demotion in 2014 because Leek CSOB and Formby resigned from the league.
Past the immaculate carved wooden eagle (very appropriate !) and then the fluorescent Cornbrooke B & B signs on Manchester Road, congestion soon ensues thanks to a roadside florist and some rather shocking parking ! The situation gets worse due to one lane working on Chester Road at The Mere - and the queues tail back to the motorway in the opposite direction.
Onto the M6 and the Smart Motorway is coming but not quite yet thankfully. PIES graffiti (Voted PIES is an updated one) is still in evidence under an intermittent sun framed by thick grey clouds, and silhouetting a murmuration of starlings.
Four junctions down and off at Stoke, navigating past the Clay Shoot at Beech, Heronbrooke Fisheries ('The Home of Match Fishing') and the Steam Engines at Mill Meece, over the River Sow and into the quaint town of Eccleshall and its yesteryear street lighting.
Then taking the road to Loggerheads leads to Pershall Park and the Adverc Stadium. The main car park is full so it's a one track lane down to the overflow with its signs 'Warning - Classic Car Parade Approaching' - which it duly does a minute after parking up ! The overflow is a boggy, muddy field and bad enough to maroon a white Mercedes, with the driver abandoning the car after several attempts to extricate himself and succeeding only in digging himself deeper into the swamp......
£4 is the entrance fee and inside there is a walkway behind one goal and on the far side a bus shelter with low (ankle high !) benches. At the top end is The Shed, a covered end in the corner with six seats and three garden chairs. The near side supports the clubhouse, recently broken into with £5,000 damage, and covered seating - although the Executive VIP seats seem no different to the rest......
The Eagles are in two tone blue and the Daisies in change all red on a pitch resembling a cow field in front of a thin crowd of 32 - 14 more than Daisy Hill had for their home game last week...... The pitch, however, is no excuse for a first half littered with errant passing by both sides, and, for the Cutters, multiple offsides and indiscipline which leads to five yellow cards, mostly for dissent.
The Eagles do begin to soar and, having hit the frame of the goal from an acute angle then wastefully skying over, they take the lead. On 20 minutes Jordan Elcock beats his man and curls his shot beyond the keeper but the ball is hacked clear; the 'goal' is awarded, to widespread disbelief, by the androgynous linesman, who is immediately christened Shirley.....
The away side create little before the break but the second half is a different affair. Occasionally straying onside, the Cutters unlock Eccy's defence and within five minutes Daniel Gregory equalises with a composed finish. Ten minutes later and after a catalogue of home errors, Gregory's poor cross reaches Curtis Cummins and he is given time and space to thump the ball home.
A home fightback of sorts never really materialises, and when the Eagles' Nathan Dyer's sumptuous 30 yard strike is unconvincingly touched on to the bar there is no home forward following in. The Eagles' game is over when, with three minutes left, Alex McPolin is played through - keeper Spencer Martin gets there first but his clearance hits the back of McPolin and the ball trundles into an open net. 3-1 to the Daisies as the game ends in a nasty hail storm.
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