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?
