Coar Blimey - Daisies Cut Down to Size

And so to The Riverside, and a first ever North West Counties game for Garstang FC – ‘The Town Team In The Heart of The Community’. Today’s visitors are Daisy Hill FC.

It is believed Garstang FC was formed in the late 1800s although the earliest documented records show the club won the Guildhall Cup in 1927 as a member of the Preston & District League. They remained in this league, moving from The Beeches to The Riverside, in the mid sixties. In 1994 the team stepped up to the West Lancashire League and, after a series of promotions and relegations, won the Premier Division title in 2008.

The following decade brought tragedy as four years later popular player Adam ’Jags’ Swanwick died of a heart attack at the age of 28. Then twice in eight months in December 2015 and August 2016 the adjoining River Wyre burst its banks and submerged the pitch.

However last season saw a thrilling league and cup double, and the club was accepted into the North West Counties Division One North as part of the nationwide restructure of non league football.

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, and last season because of the league restructuring, having finished bottom of the pile.

So on a warm sunny August afternoon it's past Mama’s Cakeria, Bake My Day, the shutters down on TOILETORIES ELCTRICAL at T & T Pound Plus and onto the M60 for Beyond Manchester (formerly known as The Chill Factore). Then the M61 and The Incontinence Shop (Incontinence Supplies At Internet Prices !!) and Botany Bay before joining the M6 and exiting at Broughton.

Then through Barton, sponsored by Kopper Kettle Furniture (oh dear !!), Myerscough and Bilsborrow, Catterall, and Barnacre with Bonds. That brings me to the pretty High Street in Garstang – the world’s first Fairtrade town – and some gorgeous floral arrangements.

The Riverside is on the High Street, through a council pay and display car park, and forms part of the Garstang Sports & Social Club - which also includes bowling, tennis and canoe and kayaking clubs amongst others.

£4 on the gate and a free teamsheet brings me into the three sided ground. At the near end is a small covered standing area in the corner behind which is the Wyre Way and the River Wyre - the club have a volunteer who stands outside the ground next to the river with a large net to retrieve wayward shots from the river.....and he does his job today !!

The popular side supports a narrow pathway looking down on a pitch that looks magnificent given the weather - green and lush grass. At the top end is the clubhouse with cricket pavilion adjoining, and behind it a raised walkway that hides Hudson Park, home of Garstang RUFC and Garstang Cricket Club Thirds in the summer.

There are no seats save for a couple of benches outside the clubhouse, which appear to have been commandeered by cricket spectators and, incongruously, a park bench on the banking side – and not forgetting the sole pensioner who brought his own deckchair…….

Opposite is a wire fence, all that separates the football pitch from the cricket field, where a game is in progress. Indeed both matches are interrupted by the wrong ball clearing the fence and landing on the opposite pitch...... In the distance are some lovely views of the distant hills and countryside.

Garstang are in red with black trim, the club badge woven into the lower half of their shirts. The Daisies, allegedly missing six players through holiday commitments, are in royal blue.

The first thirty seconds of the game define the first half. The sight of Cutters' keeper Craig Haynes lumbering across his box and unconvincingly tipping the ball wide with his wrong hand, having got his positioning all wrong, sets the tone.

Garstang only have to wait 8 minutes for their first North West Counties goal. Some sloppy play in midfield allows Billy McKenna to bypass a flatfooted defence and race down the wing and cross for Alan Coar to sidefoot home. The same player doubles the lead midway through the half with a free header from a corner.

Jake Salisbury's excellently struck effort just clears the corner of post and bar for Garstang, and the Daisies contribute nothing up front to trail 2-0 at the interval.

The half time break bizarrely lasts 20 minutes, and ends with Daisy Hill making a tactical substitution. Captain Jake Foster drops back into defence and Jamie Rimwell joins the fray. This certainly tightens things up and the away side fashion a couple of chances themselves. Danny Warburton's backflick loops just beyond the far post, and Rimwell, gifted a glorious opportunity from a poor goal kick, slices well wide when he should have done better.

That's as good as it gets for the Cutters as Garstang finish in the ascendancy. Haynes beats away a Jonny Hothersall piledriver and then Coar has a header cleared off the line by a combination of Haynes and Josh Fairhurst, as the home team comfortably see out the game as 2-0 victors in front of a slightly disappointing crowd of 83 – today’s Garstang Show competing for people’s attention perhaps?