Villa Thriller - But Chaddy The Alpha Males... !!!!

And so to Bank Holiday Monday and a trip to another Villa Park, aka the Jim Fowler Memorial Ground, named after the founder of today's hosts, Euxton Villa FC, who play Chadderton FC in the North West Counties Division One North.

Formed in 1907 as Euxton FC, the club joined the West Lancashire League, renaming to Euxton Villa FC in 1963. Successive promotions, both as runners up, in 2003 and 2004 saw Villa ascend to the West Lancashire Premier League. Third place last term meant the club's application to move up to Step 6 was approved.

Four straight wins, including a 3-1 defeat of Runcorn Town at Villa Park in their first ever NWCFL home match was tarnished by a 2-2 home draw with Darwen on Saturday leaving the home side second.

Chadderton FC, 'Chaddy', was formed in 1947 as Millbrow FC, then became North Chadderton Amateurs and finally Chadderton FC in 1957. Initially competing in the Oldham Amateur League, the club then progressed through the Manchester Amateur League and on to the Manchester League in 1963.

 

A step up to the Lancashire Combination followed and, after finishing runners up in 1982, they became a founder member of the North West Counties, created by the merger of the Lancashire Combination and Cheshire County League.

Promotion in 1990 was swiftly met with relegation the season after, but the club lasted longer at the higher level after gaining promotion in 1993 - until being forcibly demoted in 1999 due to ground grading issues.

 

In 2007 Chaddy was taken over by Craig Halliwell and Tony Bhatti of HB Property Group, but within two years ties had been severed; the club becoming a members' club run by the people for the people. The play offs were reached in 2015, following which lower than mid table finishes have been the norm. 

The team remains best known for two of its ex-players - England international David Platt and Mark Owen from Take That.

 

This time four victories to start the league season was spoilt by a 2-0 home loss at the Falcon Fire Stadium to current leaders Pilkington, with Chaddy currently placing 5th, and out of the Isuzu Vase last Saturday at the hands of Frickley Athletic.

Past Lots of Walks, the faux Hairstylist Drive takes me through Sale, the old Sale Post & Telegraph Office, and Soul Star Holistics, with Garveys advertising events in March... Registration plates today are HAV1T and H4LF K as I drive beyond Beyond (Chill Factore) to reach the M61 and its motorway graffiti 'Sabotage Dissent Do Not Consent'.

 

Past the Macron and off at Junction 8 Botany Bay where I am held up by a tractor pulling a trailer with a badly (fatally) mangled tyre. Through Euxton and into the back of beyond, never ending country lanes and finally, opposite Runshaw Hall, the Jim Fowler Memorial Ground.

 

Just sufficient parking for a bumper crowd of 224, which includes Paul Scholes (his son making a substitute appearance for Chaddy in the second half) and £5 in - but £3 for 'Conncessions'....

 

Inside is the clubhouse, to the left a warm up pitch and the Blind Tiger Inns Stand - 54 seats which host 3 noisy Chaddy fans and their flag. It's cordoned off beyond this and the far end is also out of bounds so the popular side, including a small covered area, is busy - the rural ground surrounded by foliage and trees. 

Euxton are in orange and black, Chadderton in change fluorescent lime and black - their home strip is all red... Twenty five minutes of nothingness ensues...

 

Then, out of nothing, a 25 yard left foot screamer top bins in the right hand corner from Villa's Josh Briggs and puts Euxton ahead. Matters are reversed in the last five minutes of the half; first an expertly threaded through ball is converted, with aplomb, by Cory Knight. Then two minutes before the break Adam Dale heads home from a corner, and the visitors lead 2-1.

 

The second period starts slowly too, until Ethan Darr heads home, again from a corner, for Villa to restore parity on 59 minutes. It's a turning point that doesn't turn however - 60 seconds later Euxton concede a penalty for a trip in the box and Jordan Schofield tucks away the spot kick.

 

With a quarter of an hour to play a dreadful Chaddy corner is matched by an equally awful headed clearance and James Purfield smashes home for 4-2. Cue all out Villa pressure, leaving themselves bare at the back, but despite striking the frame of the goal and Matty Davies' cute chip which drifts and hits the post, the game finishes 4-2 to Chaddy after six minutes of added time.

Chad All Over - Pilks Under The Weather (But Cricket Carries On !!)

And so on a foul August Saturday, with summer appearing to have been and gone, it's over to the ArcOframe and Ruskin Sports Village for the North West Counties fixture between Pilkington and Chadderton.

Pilkington FC was officially founded in 1938 but the club has a history dating back many years before its official formation. The team's origins emanate from the Pilkington glass factory in St Helens which had numerous teams going back almost as far as the company starting to make glass in the 19th century.

Pilks initially played at Crossley Road with teams in the Liverpool Business Houses League and the St Helens Combination League. The club moved to Ruskin Drive at the start of the 1948/49 season and subsequently switched leagues to the Liverpool Combination.

An overseas Portuguese tour in 1970 advertised the club as Recs Pilkington de Liverpool but thousands of Portuguese spectators flocked to the ground expecting to see the Anfield team.

For the 1983/84 campaign Pilkington joined the Mid-Cheshire (now Cheshire) League and spent many years alternating between the first and second tiers. Their most recent relegation to Division One was in 2015, but in 2018 the club was promoted back to the Premier Division as runners up. Twelve months later Pilks won the Premier League, beating Altrincham Reserves on goal difference on the final day and finishing with 8 straight wins to confirm promotion to the North West Counties Football League Division One North.

Chadderton FC, 'Chaddy', was formed in 1947 as Millbrow FC, then became North Chadderton Amateurs and finally Chadderton in 1957. Initially competing in the Oldham Amateur League, the club then progressed through the Manchester Amateur League and on to the Manchester League in 1963.

A step up to the Lancashire Combination followed and, after finishing runners up in 1982, they became founder members of the North West Counties, created by the merger of the Lancashire Combination and Cheshire County League. Promotion in 1990 was swiftly met with relegation the season after, but the club lasted longer at the higher level after gaining promotion in 1993 - until being forcibly demoted in 1999 due to ground grading issues.

In 2007 Chaddy was taken over by Craig Halliwell and Tony Bhatti of HB Property Group, but within two years ties had been severed; the club becoming a members' club run by the people for the people. The play offs were reached in 2015, but the team remains best known for two of its ex-players - England international David Platt and Mark Owen from Take That. It was a disappointing performance of 16th (out of 20) last season.

So with strong winds and heavy rain it's over a freshly resurfaced Altrincham Bridge, past the Cheshire Retreat and glorious floral beds at Denzell Gardens before I reach Thelwall with speed restrictions for 'high winds'. Today's number plate is CA5 1 BAD, and there's also an Ultimate Lawns car whose bodywork is entirely (sodden) artificial grass...

A slight detour into Warrington, past Sub Imagination - with a strapline of 'Your dream and our hard work means mutual satisfaction' ; imaginative but clunky....

Finally onto the M62, past the Glass Horse pub and Catwalk Dogs, the 'Canine Grooming Lounge' and into the one way Denton's Green Lane which doubles back on itself; Ruskin Drive is a cul de sac on the left..

There's plenty of parking at Ruskin Drive Sports Ground, a 30 acre sports complex originally built in 1902 by Pilkington plc for use by its employees, and now run by St Helens Borough Council. There's also plenty going on - I walk past a rugby union pitch, home of Ruskin Park RFC, down some steps to a bowling green and this brings me to the cricket ground. Most spectators are in or around the Sticky Wicket Bar & Grub.

It's a dual entrance to get in - one side for the football (£3) and the other for the rugby league (£2) where Pilkington Recs, top of Conference Division One, are doing battle with Oulton Raiders, with Recs ultimately winning that one 30-8. The sports complex also features tennis courts and rounders pitches.

Inside it's a three sided ground with housing behind the goal at the top end. The left side is inaccessible with fencing and densely populated trees behind the dugouts, and the rugby union pitch behind them. The near end holds the changing rooms and bar, and the cricket pitch beyond. The popular side has a covered 200 seat AtCost stand and the rugby league match in the background.

The ArcOframe also hosts a series of ten information boards charting St Helens Town's journey to the FA Vase final in 1987, where they beat Warrington Town 3-2, and others covering Saints' football legends.

Pilkington are in all green, with keeper Patrick McLoughlin wearing a salmon number, and Chaddy are in change white with a red stripe and black flashing - stopper Jordan Hadlow in all yellow. A thin crowd of 72 - in stark contrast to last week's curtain raiser against Cleator Moor Celtic which drew 224 - gets thoroughly soaked as the wind blows the driving rain into the four rows of the covered stand.

Pilks are all at sea as Chaddy set the pace, McLoughlin tipping a shot onto the bar within the first two minutes. So it comes as no surprise when on 10 minutes Reece Lyndon is given time and space to square the ball and allow Liam Chambers to place the ball home.

Gradually Pilks come into the game following a mistake by Hadlow; home skipper Luke Sephton sidestepping him and hitting every part of the goalframe but crucially the ball fails to cross the line. Phil Marsh then evades his marker and goes round Hadlow before dreadfully scuffing his shot.

Half time with Chaddy 1-0 up and astonishingly I find a cricket match next door in progress in the pouring rain. In truth it's not much of a contest - Parkfield Liscard subsiding to 34 all out and St Helens Seconds comfortably reaching their target during the interval and then it's a mad sprint to the Sticky Wicket.

Back to the football and Sephton shoots across the goal whilst Jack Cunliffe is denied superbly by Hadlow. Against the run of play on 55 minutes James Dwyer doubles the advantage with a free header from a corner.

Substitute Matty Taylor's perfect cross is met by Sephton's header to reduce the arrears shortly after. Thereafter Pilks pepper the Chaddy goal, despite rugged opposition which results in 5 yellow cards - two of which come from one bizarre incident where two players (including Arron Scholes - son of United legend Paul) are booked for kicking the ball away.

Despite intense pressure and goal-line clearances Pilks fall short and Chaddy take home the points.

Leon Is The King of Chaddy

And so on a breezy Boxing Day a visit to the ARK Fleetech stadium on Andrew Street for the North West Counties clash between Chadderton FC and Sandbach United.

Chadderton FC, 'Chaddy', was formed in 1947 as Millbrow FC, then became North Chadderton Amateurs and finally Chadderton in 1957. Initially competing in the Oldham Amateur League, the club then progressed through the Manchester Amateur League and on to the Manchester League in 1963.

A step up to the Lancashire Combination followed and, after finishing runners up in 1982, they became founder members of the North West Counties, created by the merger of the Lancashire Combination and Cheshire County League. Promotion in 1990 was swiftly met with relegation the season after, but the club lasted longer at the higher level after gaining promotion in 1993 - until being forcibly demoted in 1999 due to ground grading issues.

In 2007 Chaddy was taken over by Craig Halliwell and Tony Bhatti of HB Property Group, but within two years ties had been severed; the club becoming a members' club run by the people for the people. The play offs were reached last year, but the team remains best known for two of its ex-players - England international David Platt and Mark Owen from Take That.

Sandbach United was established in 2004 when Sandbach Albion and Sandbach Ramblers joined forces in their quest to improve football facilities in Sandbach. The club badge reflects the union, featuring R and A in its design.

Sandbach Albion, formerly known as Hays Junior FC, was founded in 1994. Sandbach Ramblers Youth Football Club was reformed in 1995 to provide access for schoolboy football for the youth of Sandbach and the surrounding area.

United originally competed in the Staffordshire County Senior League, before moving to the Cheshire League in 2011 where they were promoted to the Premier Division in 2014. The club was accepted into the North West Counties this summer and, whilst initially looking for a season of consolidation, currently lie sixth in the play off places.

And so to Timperley Met, and an (almost) fit for purpose Metrostink service with the tram full of bleary eyed Man United fans, seemingly wanting to discuss George Michael's death..... Past Old Trafford and into the city centre where I walk the Second City Crossing which is littered with beggars.

Then onto the Rochdale line, 'The Line of Violence', at Exchange Square and beyond the National Football Museum the conversations turn to hard drug use. It's a bleak line with abandoned mills on both sides of the track; I alight at Westwood for a walk down the hill, crossing from Oldham back into Manchester, into the teeth of a biting wind.

The Humdinger pub is no humdinger as it is closed and looking for tenants or to be sold, before I reach Fish World and a male jogger in pale pink socks and shocking pink running shoes.... Andrew Street is across the way, and the ARK Fleetech Stadium is hemmed in amidst a warren of terraced house side streets.

Inside immediately to my left is the tea bar with the main bar upstairs. This end and the popular side are tree lined, with the latter providing the only cover (but not from this wind !!) and a middle section with three broad steps for seating and backed by Broadway - the Oldham version !!

The far end is open with a small hillock and waste ground, whilst the near side hosts a very boggy car park - and several spectators do not even venture from the warmth of their vehicles for the entire 90 minutes... The dug outs are on this side too along with a waste receptacle that tells us shoutily 'DO NOT PUT DOG CRAP IN THIS BIN'. On the pitch the goalposts are still being erected....

Chaddy are in all red, United in change white with one blue stripe and their goalkeeper in pink - but I don't think he was the aforementioned jogger ! A pale sun provides no warmth and there really is no respite from the icy wind. 51 goals in Chaddy's 11 home league games so far this season - so a guaranteed goalless draw then ?

Immediately it is obvious that Chaddy are more up for the fight and their front two of Leon Iluobi and James Curley are a handful all afternoon. However they manage to make a complete hash of a two on one, caused by dreadful Sandbach defending, and then have three valid penalty claims rejected.

United seem disjointed and rarely threaten, although Josh Lane pinches the ball from the last man and greedily shoots wide when a pass to unmarked centre forward Danny Bartle would surely have seen him score.

After Sam Gibson shoots just wide for Chaddy, the home side get the goal they deserve on 26 minutes. Wingman Luke Heron beats his man, runs to the dead ball line and crosses for Iluobi to slam home from five yards. Iluobi is then denied by a magnificent last ditch challenge from United captain Bradley Cooper (awaiting his next film role one assumes). At the other end Bartle gets it all wrong with his left foot when a header was the better option, and Chaddy lead one nil at the break.

The second half sees more of the same, Curley shoots straight at the keeper, Chaddy have two goals disallowed - one for a push on the keeper at a corner, the other for a tight offside - and hit the underside of the bar.

Sandbach are frustrated and frustrating to watch, and create only one significant opportunity but Bartle's twenty yard strike is handily parried wide. Still the second goal won't come for the home side but, as we edge into injury time, Gibson beats three men on the left, shoots beyond the keeper - and strikes the post... Iluobi's first half goal proves to be enough :-) 

Daisy Cutters Chaddy Down To Size !

And so to New Sirs, and after nine consecutive postponements and having last played on December 19th, Daisy Hill FC finally get to host a football match. Visitors today in the North West Counties are Chadderton FC.

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.

Chadderton FC, 'Chaddy', was formed in 1947 as Millbrow FC, then became North Chadderton Amateurs and finally Chadderton in 1957. Initially competing in the Oldham Amateur League, the club then progressed through the Manchester Amateur League and on to the Manchester League in 1963.

A step up to the Lancashire Combination followed and, after finishing runners up in 1982, they too became founder members of the North West Counties, created by the merger of the Lancashire Combination and Cheshire County League. Promotion in 1990 was swiftly met with relegation the season after, but the club lasted longer at the higher level after gaining promotion in 1993 - until being forcibly demoted in 1999 due to ground grading issues.

In 2007 Chaddy was taken over by Craig Halliwell and Tony Bhatti of HB Property Group, but within two years ties had been severed; the club becoming a members' club run by the people for the people. The play offs were reached last year, but the team remains best known for two of its ex-players - David Platt and Mark Owen from Take That.

It's a chilly but bright afternoon as I venture on to Washway Road, past Sunsations Tanning Salon, Cinders Fireplaces, Hairport and Garvey's Social Club (Patelvis has been and gone !!). Then the M60, obligatory Trafford Centre queues and Barton Bridge flanked by Chill Factore and the AJ Bell Stadium before I join the M61.

After I pass three broken down cars within 100 yards of each other, it's off at Junction 5 towards Westhoughton and then, after navigating a rather unnecessary one way system and avoiding the allures of The Pungle and Hosker's Nook, down to St James Street - a narrow cul de sac with a church, cricket club and residential housing. New Sirs is along an alleyway with a heavily rutted car park, overwhelmed by today's crowd of 43..... 'Please park orderly' is an instruction seemingly ignored today.

The peculiar entrance has character but is closed, and advises us that The Daisies are 'Members of First North Western Trains League Division 2' - ahem. The turnstile is further on and inside, immediately behind the near goal, is the seated area behind which is the social club and pie hut.
Down one side is a small stepped covered shelter which isn't the tallest - 'Please Mind Your Head' is definitely appropriate. At the far end lie two abandoned spotlights and some blue and white cones, and on the opposite side an incongruous static caravan behind the bushes with some ramshackle fencing, and the cricket ground just beyond.

The Daisies are in all royal blue with white trim, and Chaddy in orange with black flashes and their keeper in grey with pink slashes. The linesman on the far side can hardly be 16.....

The wintry sun has given way to cloud, an icy wind and, subsequently, rain. For twenty minutes the sodden pitch is the only winner - heavily sanded in parts, sheet mud in others, leaving players struggling to keep their balance and resembling Dancing on Ice, badly.

Nevertheless the chances start to come. For the home side a marauding run ends with a shot just wide and then winger Alex McPolin is thwarted in a one on one. However it's the visitors from Broadway Stadium who come the closer - Macaulay Harewood shoots into the side netting, and then, after a suicidal home pass, striker James Curley is set free, the home keeper slips in the mud and Curley curls the ball on to the post.

Ten minutes before half time the Cutters break the deadlock. A corner is flicked on and Simon Farrell scores with a fabulous scissor kick. Shortly afterwards the referee misses a blatant penalty with Chaddy's Keith Melvin handling the ball while prone in the box; Melvin takes a tactical injury break and that leads us to half time.

Five minutes into the second period the ball breaks for McPolin 35 yards out and he lobs the keeper to double the advantage - hit and hope or wondergoal ? Probably the former.... McPolin then misses another one on one and then shanks wide, before an incredible goalmouth melee sees the ball cleared off Chaddy's line three times. Chaddy are almost anonymous up front, with centre back Melvin having their best effort.

The action draws to a close with another goalmouth scramble, two more goal line clearances and McPolin almost apologetically scuffing the ball into the corner to leave it 3-0....and Chaddy pushing up Daisies. :)