And so to The Wythenshawe Club on Longley Lane in Northenden and a Manchester League Division Two fixture between Baguley Athletic and Tottington United. The end of the cricket season has seen Athletic revert from Dixons Brooklands Academy in Baguley, where I saw them beat Eccles United in the Cup, and that Man & Technic sculpture, to their usual 'home' at the cricket club.
Baguley
Athletic FC was established in April 2004 as a breakaway from parent club
Woodhouse Park United. The Badgers achieved back to back local league
promotions in 2006 and 2007 but thereafter immediately folded.
The club was reincarnated in 2013, joining the Manchester Saturday Morning League. Promoted in 2016, folding again in 2019, but reforming in 2020, and entering the Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur Football League for 2021/22, Baguley finished fourth (of 11) in Division Two.
The Badgers were then accepted into the Manchester League Division Two this past close season, and have started with eight wins, including an astonishing 15-1 slaughter of Cavaliers three weeks ago and a 6-3 drubbing of Eccles last weekend, and one defeat (to Chadderton Cott). Baguley sit second with games in hand....
Tottington
United FC was formed by Norman Entwistle and his father in the early 1970s,
playing in the Bury Sunday School League. Norman's father worked as a park
keeper for Tottington Urban District Council before it became part of Bury
Council in 1974.
In 1992 the club entered into a 20 year lease to play on the pitch formerly used by Tottington St Anne's FC. A Sports Council grant renovated the pitch and installed new changing rooms at St Anne's Field.
United joined the Manchester Football League Division One in 1996, gaining immediate promotion to the Premier as runners up. Despite a third place finish the following season Totty withdrew mid term in 1998/99.
The club then appeared in the West Lancashire League Division Two in 2001/02, but only for one season - resigning due to vandalism of the changing rooms. Tottington resurfaced in the Lancashire Amateur League Division One and were crowned champions in 2012/13.
Thereafter top half finishes followed but Totty were relegated in bottom place in 2017/18, however a promotion rebound as runners up came in the following year. United stood top in the curtailed 2019/20 campaign and that was sufficient to ascend to the Premier League.
Four wins and a defeat before the season was null and voided - and then the club came close to oblivion, due to a lack of players and the effects of the pandemic. Only a Covid loan from Bury Council kept the club alive, but the team did not compete in 2021/22.
Accepted into Manchester League Division Two for the 2022/23 campaign, Tottington currently sit above the pointless Breightmet and Cavaliers with 4 points from 10 games - after a three point deduction.
Up
towards Timperley village and the Grange estate, the Old Garden, then across
Beech Fields onto Maple Road and into Wendover - the scene recently of a drugs
related kidnapping and assault and a murder. Numberplates en route are F1LTH
and KF16HTS before I reach Wythenshawe Road and Hologic, Sky Farm Shop and
then Wythenshawe Park and its newly reopened, after an arson attack in 2016,
Hall - £6.7m of refurbishments over six years, whilst the arsonist was jailed
for four and a half years.... Opposite is a house with an unusual carport and
petrol pump in the front garden, massive mounds of leaves and a dead
squirrel...
Past the Ministry of St Bonaventure, briefly touching on Northern Moor and then it's under Princess Parkway to Face & Eye and the Jehovah's Witnesses Assembly Hall. Right into Longley Lane and beyond the Farmers Arms, Just Sew Perfect and Bread & Butties brings me to The Wythenshawe Club.
A narrow drive leads to the car park and clubhouse, the cricket pitch - the square fenced off - and sightscreens and scoreboard up top, mothballed for winter. The football pitch is also roped off and access is limited to one side only.
Opposite are the dugouts and behind the conifers lies an airport car parking facility, whilst at the top end and on the other side of more trees and another fence is the Vita Liquid Polymers plant. The other two sides are flanked by residential housing.
Baguley
are in silver and black, United in change yellow with a blue and red diagonal
stripe, in a match refereed by Titus Tresidder. The crowd accumulates to 23 and
3 dogs in the sun - but none of us predicts a dozen goal bonanza.....
Within 90 seconds a Baguley cross is cleared dreadfully and Lee Hendley sidefoots home. The Badgers then hit the bar twice before Totty break through via their speedy winger, home custodian Dan Green charging out, missing both man and ball and Ryan Lockett equalises.
Parity doesn't last long - 4 minutes in fact ! Lee Gaskell's suicidal back pass from beyond half way is nowhere near and Hendley calmly tucks away. Eight minutes later Victor Abadaki converts a near post header from a corner and it's 3-1.
On the half hour Green flaps at a Lockett shot and Jack Cabrelli scores from the rebound. Six minutes on The Badgers concede a needless penalty and Gaskell makes it 3-3. A breathless first half finishes with Hendley poking home from the six yard line for his hat trick and 4-3 to Baguley at the interval.
Hendley misses three one on ones in the second period as Athletic hit the bar again, but Kain Deegan shows him the way and makes it 5-3 on 61 minutes. Seven minutes on his stunning volley brings the score up to 6-3. Five minutes later some gorgeous penalty area interplay leaves sub Curtis Campbell to stroke home and we're at 7-3.....
United hit the post and then in the final five minutes a Totty break sees a cross that Green gets nowhere near, leaving sub Arran Ashall to tap in at the far post (7-4). Two minutes after Tom Hendley heads home for the Badgers, virtually on the goal line from a corner, to conclude matters at 8-4.
Breathtaking stuff !! ☺
