And so to Alder House, or the Kensite Stadium as it has now been branded, for a North West Counties Premier League fixture between Atherton Collieries and West Didsbury & Chorlton.
'Colls' was established in 1916 by miners from the six pits in the Atherton Urban District with the aim of raising money for locals involved in the war effort. After the end of World War 1 the club joined the Bolton Combination, which they won 10 times up to 1965 along with a record 6 Lancashire FA Amateur Shield successes.
Brief forays into the Lancashire Alliance and Manchester League ended with a return to the Lancashire Combination in 1971 and then a move to the Cheshire County League in 1978. The two leagues merged in 1982 to form the North West Counties Football League, with Colls founder members of Division 3.
The club was promoted as champions in 1987 and then to Division 1 as runners up in 1996. Following relegation in 2009 the Colls regained their position in the top flight as champions in the 2014/15 season.
In this, their centenary season, the club has adopted a season only centenary badge but continues to play at Alder House, their home from inception. There have been two major changes to the ground though - the pitch has been rotated 90° at some point and the main stand was demolished in 2007, a stand formerly described as 'leaning forward as if in prayer for its continued survival'......
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 season's league record crowd of 674 for the South Manchester Derby against Maine Road on 27 December.
Some familiar sights en route - Sunsation
Tanning Centre, The Flamin' Chicken, Hairport, Honeyblossom Bridal and
Garveys, still advertising Christmas karaoke on 23rd December.
Inevitably queues for the Trafford Centre on Barton Bridge and then off
the M60 at Worsley and into Boothstown, where the road is awash with
polystyrene.
Past Mosley Common Pit Wheel, and then through Tyldesley and Skenning Bobs, a pub named after an old landlord with a profound squint ! Beyond Cranky's Off Licence (under new management !) and to the outskirts of Atherton, with the ground on Alder Street, next to Formby Hall, and Alder House Cat Hotel (yes a hotel for cats !!) at the end of the road.
Alder House has an outdated and dilapidated charm to it, from the three raised park benches underneath mature trees at one end, to the changing rooms with their concertina players tunnel (complete with Fly Emirates sponsorship) and the hut grandly entitled 'The Jimmy Fielding Suite'. A cargo container serves as the refreshment bar next to a very welcoming clubhouse.
There are two stands, a smaller one with covered terrace extension in the far corner, and in the near corner a larger stand by the ground entrance. This main stand is old and made from railway sleepers, but with slightly newer, albeit faded, seats. Next door is a six step crumbling terrace spanning the two dug outs.
West, managed by Steve 'Man and Boy' Settle,
have brought decent support - their three flags matching the home team
and their 'Original Crazy Gang'. Colls are in traditional black and
white, their keeper in salmon, with 'Pride of Atherton' emblazoned on
their backs. West are in change light blue and their keeper in all
purple.
It's a raw afternoon as Colls attack down a prodigious slope towards the 'Shallow End' - it's a slope that proves too much for the linesman who takes a tumble to the crowd's delight !! The first half hour owes less to craft and guile and more to graft and bile as the two sides cancel each other out.
Aimless is the word on the terraces, sloppy from the Colls bench as West shade it. West's left back, Richmond Botchey, has a marauding run and shot which brings a sprawling save from Colls' keeper Adam Reid. A further well constructed West move sees Joe Shaw lift his shot over the bar. Colls' first real effort results in Liam Wood hitting the post.
Four minutes from the break, and with Colls struggling to clear the ball, West's Martyn Andrews deftly chips the ball goalwards and the salmon jerseyed Reid makes a real mess of it, failing to, er, leap like a salmon, and palms the ball in. Parity is restored a minute before half time as Colls' left back, Gaz Peet, hits a venomous free kick into the bottom left corner.
The second half is an altogether different affair. It's as if Colls prefer to play up the hill as Neil Chappell strikes the top of the bar, and then Ben Hardcastle strokes the ball wide when it seemed easier to score. Midway through substitute Jordan Cover outmuscles his man and strikes the ball across West keeper Dean Williams - and the home side lead.
With ten minutes to go and after sustained West pressure, producing a deflected Andrews' shot that goes agonisingly wide and a succession of corners, the ball breaks for sub Dave Sherlock. West are short at the back and his 50 yard ball finds Cover, who tees up the third sub, Henoc Mukendi. His shot is cleared off the line but Sherlock, following up, rams the ball home. Game over as Colls win their eighth straight game and go joint top.
