And so finally, at the sixth time of asking, a visit to The Silentnight Stadium, with today's North West Counties match between Barnoldswick Town and West Didsbury & Chorlton going ahead.
The original Barnoldswick Town joined the Lancashire Combination in 1924, but after finishing bottom in 1932/33 and 1933/34 they left the league. Town joined the Yorkshire League in 1935 but this lasted only a single season and the club subsequently folded.
The modern club was established in 1972 as Barnoldswick United (1972) starting in the Craven and District League. 'Barlick' moved to the East Lancashire League in the early 1990s, then the West Lancashire League in 1997.
In 2003 the club absorbed Barnoldswick Park Rovers and Salterforth Juniors, and was renamed Barnoldswick Town FC. Six years later 'Town' was accepted into the North West Counties Football League Division One, and promoted to the Premier as runners up in their first season. Here they have stayed despite several relegation battles but survival has been achieved comfortably this season, with the bonus of reaching the Macron Cup final.
West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC, the visitors from
Brookburn Road, was formed in 1908 in West Didsbury as Christ Church AFC by a
local Sunday School superintendent - a team formed out of the Boys Brigade
Company and the Young Men's Bible Class. The side played in the Manchester
Alliance League up to the outbreak of World War 1.
The team changed its name to West Didsbury AFC at the start of the 1920/21 season, entering the Lancashire & Cheshire League. The 'Bury won the Rhodes Cup, twice, and the Whitehead Cup, but never the league.
In 2003 the club changed to West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC, and moved across to the Manchester League in 2006, with their 2012/13 application to join the North West Counties being accepted. In their first season 'West' finished third and were promoted to the Premier, as now defunct title winners Formby AFC failed ground grading criteria.
The club enjoys celebrity support, including local indie rock band Dutch Uncles who launched their album O Shudder at a game in 2014 (no, never heard of them !!). They also form part of the club's Krombacher Ultras, named after the lager sold in the clubhouse.... And popularity is rising with a record crowd of 674 for the South Manchester Derby against Maine Road on 27 December last year.
And so on a blustery, cloudy Easter Saturday on to
Manchester Road, where Frickin Chicken at the Old Pelican gives way to the
Flamin' Chicken then Skullfades Barbershop before reaching T & T Pound
Plus....... ELCTRICAL and TOILETORIES have now been joined by a To Let
sign.....
Then the M60 Smart Motorway, where 843 cars have run out of fuel since the project started and the only sign of work is one abandoned hi vis jacket..... Barton Bridge inevitably means tailbacks for the Trafford Centre, accidents and, more improbably, overtaking a Birdman Parrot Rescue van !
Then the M66 and its wind turbines in the distance before, with the thermometer plunging from 14° to 7° and street lights on at five to two, reaching the M65 flanked by rows and rows and rows of terraced houses. Vivary Way and Colne, the home of queues, never fails to disappoint and after Storm Hand Car Wash it's into Foulridge, beyond the Four Elephants Indian restaurant and The Old Stone Trough pub, staying in the 'Palatinate of Lancashire' to reach Salterforth.
It's straight on into Barnoldswick, a town dominated by the two major local employers, Silentnight and Rolls Royce. Past Tilltots Perfectly Mad Emporium and Handbags & Gladrags to Gisburn Road, then into Greenberfield Lane, a farm track wide enough for one vehicle only (as I find out later !!) Then into West Close Road and the Silentnight Stadium, originally a grazing meadow for cattle.
I enter the ground at the Sewer End (yes and there's a sign and flag to prove it !!), which hosts the changing rooms, clubhouse and the main all seated covered stand which is split into three separate sections. Behind is the car park, allotments and West Close Farm - but no obvious sewer !
The near side has hard standing and a small, four step covered terrace mid way down. The far side, The Exposed Side, adjoins Barnoldswick Cricket Club and warns us not to stand on the grass banks, but these are just compacted soil mounds with even the weeds struggling to gain a foothold... The top end is the shallowest behind goal area I have ever seen, allowing for standing room one deep - the wall forming the boundary of the detached house which overlooks the pitch.
Barlick are in blue with yellow and their keeper, Jordan
Gidley, in all grey topped off with a hideous neck tattoo. West are in white
and black.
West's first chance, a 45 yard attempted lob by Matty Kay that barely rises above the ground sums up their first half. Indeed it's all Barlick as centre forward Aaron Hollindrake's volley strikes Kev McGrath but claims for a penalty are denied. West are visibly affected by a serious injury to Nic Evangelinos who leaves the field of play with a dislocated shoulder.
Shortly after a credit card is retrieved from the pitch - which belongs to West's centre half Anthony Potts (how ? why ?) - a move down the right ends with John Beckwith squaring for Aurelian Gohoreanu to smash home with his left foot.
Barlick lead 1-0 on the half hour and it then becomes the battle of the two Aarons. Barlick's Hollindrake has three opportunities to beat West keeper Aaron Ashley, but each time the stopper comes out on top, the last a fabulous double save.
Barlick will rue those wasted chances at the Sewer End, as the second half is a completely different affair. Within two minutes sub Ben Steer plays in Saul Henderson who caresses the ball past Gidley into the corner of the net.
Seven minutes later, following a melee from a corner, Henderson's effort is diverted off the line by the defender performing his best Lev Yashin impression. Penalty but incredibly no card; Kay squeezes home the spot kick and West lead.
A third goal is not long in coming. Steer latches onto a through ball, Gidley saves but from the rebound Henderson scores from a tight angle. Steer is again denied by Gidley and then passes when he should have shot, but 'Bury comfortably ease to the 3-1 win in a real game of two halves - the second of which Barlick didn't turn up for.
