Shelley Shock At Town's Lack of Smarts And Glass Waste

And so to the Stafflex Arena at Storthes Hall to visit another of the North West Counties new boys, Shelley Community FC. Today’s visitors in Division One North are the returning Ashton Town AFC. So 'where is Shelley ?' is the question I've been asked all week, and the answer is 3 miles north east of Upperthong and Netherthong. Still none the wiser ? OK 3 miles north east of Holmfirth, home of Last of The Summer Wine, and 6 miles south east of Huddersfield.

Shelley Football Club was established in 1903 and was originally located on Back Lane, opposite the village hall in Shelley, with the club competing in the Huddersfield & District League – their best performance winning Division 2 twice.

In the late 1950s the club relocated to Westerly Lane, and this heralded a period of success including a double of winning the Division 3 title and the Groom Cup. Sadly the success didn’t last and the club folded in 1972.

The team was reformed in 1980 and in 2000 moved to Skelmanthorpe Rec. Having slipped to Division 5 of the Huddersfield & District League, the club slowly grew taking consecutive championships in Divisions 4 and 3 and winning the Groom Cup in both years.

In 2011 Shelley moved to Storthes Hall and up to the West Yorkshire League Division Two for the 2011/12 campaign. As title winners in their first season the side ascended to Division One finishing runners up in 2012/13 – their best finish.

The Storthes Hall facility was formally opened by Sarah, Duchess of York, in June 2015 with the emphasis being placed on the community. This provided the infrastructure for a successful application to join the North West Counties League Division One North in the close season, notwithstanding a 10^th place finish (out of 16) in the West Yorkshire League.

The original Ashton Town joined the Lancashire Combination in 1903, but withdrew towards the end of the 1910/11 season and their fixtures were taken over by Tyldesley Albion. The current club was established in 1953 by employee Derek 'Mick' Mycock as Makerfield Mill FC - a works football team for Makerfield Mill, one of Lancashire's leading textile mills in the 1950s, and known locally as the 'Weaving Shed'. The first two seasons in the Wigan Sunday School League can only be described as disastrous, with the club winning just two games, and earning the unenviable name of 'The Chopping Blocks'.....

Mick decided to move the club to a higher standard of football, the St Helens Combination, for 1955/56 and successfully gained permission from the Mill's management to play four non-employees. After a season of consolidation, the restriction on the use of outside players was totally lifted and Division 2 was won in 1958.

Makerfield Mill FC joined the Warrington & District Amateur League the following season, and were champions five times in their first six seasons. This was also a period which saw the club renamed Ashton Town in 1962 and they acquired their Edge Green Street ground, which was previously used by Stubshaw Cross Rovers, in 1964.

After a sixth title in 1970, the Town joined the Lancashire Combination and then the Cheshire County League in 1978. Thereafter the club became founder members of the North West Counties Football League in 1982 where they have remained ever since, aside from one season in the Manchester League and last term in the Cheshire League having previously finished bottom of the pile in 2016/17 - slightly at odds with their motto 'Onwards & Upwards'. Despite only finishing 6^th in a league of 15 the Town were successful in gaining re-election to the North West Counties Division One North in the summer.

So on a glorious sunny afternoon it's a familiar trail to the M60, past iBlaze and ELCTRICAL. TOILETORIES. and Dogs and Divas Doggy Daycare. There's even a car with registration plate M60 OOH en route but personally I can't get that excited about a motorway.... Other plates today are SP11NES (wonder what's behind the back of that one!) and SK11NG P with all its winter sport paraphernalia - just goes to show some people have more money than sense....

Anyway beyond the Co-op pyramid and its crystal Methodist, The Light Sociable Cinema - whatever that is - at Red Rock, and off at Denton Rock for the M67 at the end of which is the Big Baps Butty Van.
Traffic chaos, as ever, at Mottram and Hollingsworth, then into the pretty village of Tintwistle with Arnfield Fly Fishery on the left. To Crowden and Woodhead, with the reservoirs still depleted, and a helicopter hovering low above the water.

Some beautiful countryside views in the sunshine as I circumnavigate Penistone - views eclipsed by the return journey via a packed Holmfirth (yes I picked the weekend of the Holmfirth Food & Drink Festival !!) and Holme Moor radio mast.

Onto the A629 and Nether Mill Coarse Fishery and Barnsley Trout Farm, then the floral welcome to Ingbirchworth, Salt Pie Farm at High Flatts, Birdsedge, Thunder Bridge and finally Shelley where I turn at The Foxglove.

Storthes Hall Student Village, formerly a mental hospital, is well signposted and I travel beyond the student accommodation and take a single track potholed road to Storthes Hall Park aka The Stafflex Arena. The Big Kid Circus has also taken residence further on in the complex as I find when the match finishes. Plenty of parking again for today's crowd of 31.

The stadium is something else, almost engulfed in woodland and hacked out of a forest, with three sides tree lined and the fourth with astonishing views of the valley and moors, with Emley Moor transmission tower prominent.

Four pounds at the turnstile brings me to the clubhouse and bar and a patio area, with steps leading to a flat tarmacked viewing area. The quirky 'stand' is completed by nine concrete steps to the touchline with wooden planks acting as seats. Both ends are partially covered, the stand starting in the corner and finishing at the half way line. The top end and opposite touchline both feature warm up areas and are fenced off; there is a walkway behind the goal to my left.

Shelley are in red and black stripes, Ashton in change all yellow and this week we have an Asian referee, a young linesman and an even younger lineswoman. The game starts with a minute's silence in honour of Ashton Athletic's grassroots legend Taffy Roberts who died this week.

The first half is lively enough with Ashton starting the better. Dylan Glass forces a fine diving save from Shelley's keeper Paul Day then wastes another opportunity. Brad Smart scores for Town but the lineswoman flags for offside - not so smart !!

Shelley come back into the game and leading goalscorer Craig Billington's flick volley lands just the wrong side of the post. His header shortly after goes close, before the miss of the first period goes to Ashton's Jason Carey. Seemingly offside he bears down one on one with Day and comfortably sidefoots wide.

The second half sees Town take a stranglehold on the match, with Smart forcing a, ahem, smart save from Day when he should have scored. Shelley's shooting is high, wide and not very handsome.

Glass has two great chances to win the game, the second of which he inexplicably screws into the side netting in a one on one with Day. Then déjà vu from last week: Glass is played through, Day hesitates outside his box then commits to the challenge and appears to bring the Ashton man down. Play on says the referee with no red card for the Shelley stopper or yellow for simulation by Glass.

Valiant Shelley defending keeps the game scoreless with the considered opinion of an elderly home fan at the death being 'Both sides squandered their opportunities - but mainly them !' A point gained for Shelley….

Panthers Fail To Pounce - Then A Second Half To Makerfield Ill..

 And so to Edge Green Street in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the home of Ashton Town AFC. On a cold, grey afternoon the Town play host to near neighbours, Atherton Laburnum Rovers, in the North West Counties Football League Division One.

The original Ashton Town joined the Lancashire Combination in 1903, but withdrew towards the end of the 1910/11 season and their fixtures were taken over by Tyldesley Albion. The current club was established in 1953 by employee Derek 'Mick' Mycock as Makerfield Mill FC - a works football team for Makerfield Mill, one of Lancashire's leading textile mills in the 1950s, and known locally as the 'Weaving Shed'. The first two seasons in the Wigan Sunday School League can only be described as disastrous, with the club winning just two games, and earning the unenviable name of 'The Chopping Blocks'.....

Mick decided to move the club to a higher standard of football, the St Helens Combination, for 1955/56 and successfully gained permission from the Mill's management to play four non-employees. After a season of consolidation, the restriction on the use of outside players was totally lifted and Division 2 was won in 1958.

Makerfield Mill FC joined the Warrington & District Amateur League the following season, and were champions five times in their first six seasons. This was also a period which saw the club renamed Ashton Town in 1962 and they acquired their Edge Green Street ground, which was previously used by Stubshaw Cross Rovers, in 1964.

After a sixth title in 1970, the Town joined the Lancashire Combination and then the Cheshire County League in 1978. Thereafter the club became founder members of the North West Counties Football League in 1982 where they have remained ever since, aside from one season in the Manchester League - slightly at odds with their motto 'Onwards & Upwards'.

Atherton Laburnum Rovers FC was founded in 1956 as Laburnum Rovers, an U-14s side to play in the Briarcroft Junior League. 'The Laburnums' were named after the Laburnum Playing Fields where they first played; it is not clear where their other nickname, 'The Panthers', emanates from.

The club expanded to senior level, starting in the Leigh & District League, and after moving to Hagfold Playing Fields, became members of the Bolton Combination in 1961. Ground facilities prevented promotion so a farmer's field was found at Greendale and, despite a footpath criss-crossing and duck ponds on either side, a football pitch was created. The move to the new ground occurred in June 1966, and after winning the Bolton Combination Division Two, the Laburnums were promoted and new changing rooms were erected - a major improvement on the old air raid shelters previously in use !

The Panthers joined the Cheshire County League in 1980, with the league stipulating the team changed its name to include that of the town - and Atherton Laburnum Rovers was born. The ground was renamed Crilly Park in honour of chairman Jack Crilly, who died suddenly.

LR were also founder members of the North West Counties in 1982 and, as champions in 1993 and 1995, were promoted to the Unibond Northern Premier League, the latter a stay that lasted three seasons culminating in relegation after financial problems. Thereafter there was a flurry of managers - 6 in 2 years at one point - and the intervening years saw two relegations, one promotion and two Bolton Hospital Cup successes.

In one direction Altrincham Retail Park, with its newly laid turf and bedding plants and on the opposite side the continued disembowelment of the old Halfords store. And then roadworks and gridlock so the more circuitous, but quicker, route is via Scissorhand barbers, Red Hot Nails and the Ducati showroom - but no Patelvis !! - to the M60.

Then onto the M56 and underneath consecutive motorway bridges featuring a rag and bone man, a flock of sheep being herded across and a Portaloo, before joining the M6. Thelwall is suspiciously quiet but still the scene of some moronic driving, before the exit at Haydock Park. This takes me into Ashton-in-Makerfield, past The Fat Bull pub and Inkjections tattooists and then onto the Golborne Road, with Edge Green Street a residential cul de sac on the right.

The ground is fairly basic - school playing fields and car parking at one end, the other three sides surrounded by housing developments. Red and white railings, wooden fencing and two small seated stands on the far side - populated by two spectators in the first half, both of whom disappear at half time.....it proves to be a wise move !! The clubhouse in the corner is the main focus of activity.

Ashton sport a red and white chequered number, whilst the Laburnums are in yellow with a swirl of blue and an illegible sponsor. The visitors kick down the prodigious slope to the end 'packed' with five ALR diehards and three flags.

Despite their lowly standing - next to bottom - the Panthers start better, and Danny Kerr is denied by the keeper's legs, whilst Danny Davies's half volley just clears the crossbar. But the visitors fail to take advantage, and Ashton come into the game, exposing the sort of brittle defending that led to a 10-1 defeat at Cheadle last month and a 6-0 home reverse to Barnton five days before. In the period leading up to half time the Town manage to strike the post twice, have another shot cleared off the line, are denied a penalty and are guilty of some wild shooting.

The second half is a frustrating, nay dreadful, spectacle exemplified by the terrible air shot from 25 yards out by the Panthers. It also features the antics of the Atherton management team, Craig and Adam Jones, who spent much of the first period exhorting their players to 'Relax'. The second half sees a change of tack to plentiful industrial language, constant dissent and goading the Ashton players. Eventually the referee walks over to the dugout and tells them to, er,....'Relax'...... There is no discernible change to their behaviour.

It becomes evident that the chance of seeing a goal is about as likely as a fun day at a funeral directors, but in the last few minutes the Laburnums start to wilt. 86 minutes are on the clock when Town's Marcus Cusani crosses and Sam Wilkie's point blank header is turned aside. Then in injury time Ashton's Phil Williams, in a one on one, shoots and the ball is just diverted wide - typically a goal kick is awarded and that's it as the match finishes goalless.

After the match Adam Jones gets embroiled in a farcical war of words regarding a Facebook post on the match....