And so after last weekend's FA Vase drama between Warrington Rylands 1906 FC and West Auckland Town, with Town, who despite being thrashed 4-0 at North Ferriby in the previous round, progressing due to the Villagers' ineligible player and expulsion in their own farcical version of 'Been To Hull and Back', it's to Urban Road in Altrincham. There stands BTH (Blessed Thomas Holford School), the home of Manchester League First Division Altrincham Hale FC, for another Murray Trophy fixture, with the visitors being Second Division Breightmet United FC.
Altrincham Hale FC was established in 2007 playing in the local Altrincham & District League, before joining the Manchester League Division One in 2017. Immediate relegation was followed by swift promotion as champions in 2018.
11th of 13 in the abandoned 2019/20 season, Alty Hale sat next to bottom at null and voidance last term, having played only three games because of a Covid outbreak at the start of the season - one win and 2 defeats.
Breightmet
United was founded in 1880, plying its trade in the Bolton & District
Amateur League, West Lancashire League and the Bolton Combination. Indeed
United contributed a leather bound West Lancashire League membership book for
the 1888/89 season to the National Football Museum.
In 1911 Breightmet reached the first round of the FA Cup, one game away from playing the mighty Arsenal. A narrow 1-0 reverse to Darwen, but the Salmoners were annihilated 10-1 at Highbury - a lucky escape for United ??
1935 saw United buy their Bury Road ground for £453 with the club subsequently joining the Manchester League Division One for the 1990/91 season. Champions in 2003, but relegated in 2009, Breightmet were placed in Division Two for the 2017/18 campaign.
2018/19 was the club's nadir: one draw in 24 games, -2 points following a deduction and a goal difference of -147. 2019/20 produced 5 points from 14 games, but at least in the current aborted season, only commenced following receipt of a Sport England grant which saved the club from extinction, 8th place out of 11 with seven points from seven games was a welcome improvement.
A short
journey that takes in Canal Side Dog Groomers, Happy Panda, Altrincham Bridge,
built 1765, widened 1850, widened (again) 1907 then rebuilt in 1935, and GW
Bonson Heated Store Rooms, now home to Tre Ciccio and Yamaha Music School, with
registration plates DOO8Y and, remarkably, AVE 1T - fools and their money are
soon parted.....
Beyond Farrat Isolevel and then the Sacred Arts Trust brings me to Urban Road and BTH and the 'caged' artificial pitch. Crucially a public footpath runs past the adjacent golf course and secondary school, meaning spectators are allowed - today's attendance, the ultimate in social distancing, is one (we know who you are), although there are cameo appearances from three dog walkers on St Vincent's Primary School playing field on the opposite side in the second half.... Across the way are the changing rooms and Station House looming large at the back.
Altrincham
Hale are in green and white stripes, Breightmet in black and white - seemingly
wearing a variety of previous seasons' kits with shirt sponsors Bid Group,
Riverside Motors, 365 Engines and APC Couriers all on display. No rush to get
started either - 1406 sees kick off whilst the missing corner flags are
retrieved and put in place.
The porosity of Breightmet's offside trap is soon in evidence, and after a couple of near misses Kyle Old is played through and scores comfortably on 6 minutes. Seven minutes on he benefits again to make it 2-0.
Alty Hale fashion a succession of chances, with Breightmet's only response a free kick from their own half, which the home keeper desperately claws away. Finally, on 33, Charlie Davies shoots home, and four minutes later Old has his hat trick for 4-0 and the half finishes with Lewis Carthew's bullet header to leave the green and whites five up at the interval.
The second period brings no reprieve with home centre half Nathe sweetly tucking home and Old adding another due to some shocking goalkeeping - the ball hitting both posts and then apologetically trickling over the line, both within the first ten minutes.
Then,
surprisingly 28 minutes without a goal. Hale hit the underside of the bar but
are largely wasteful, whilst United register another shot, all the while with
some of their players substituted, changing pitchside and then going to work...
The final seven minutes sees Alty Hale hit ten - Carthew, from more dreadful keeping, a ninth with a sumptuous volley across the keeper, and Carthew's hat trick from a penalty with the last kick of the game (the sole spectator claiming an assist having retrieved the ball and kicked it over the fence back to the penalty taker) - the referee sparing Breightmet from any stoppage time.
Then off to Moss Lane for the second half of Altrincham v Notts County, also an attendance of one, acting as an impromptu external ball boy....
