Bucks Fizz, Jamie Makes Hay and West End OKay

And so, on the final day of the North West Counties Football League season, it's a trip to the Delta Taxis Stadium for the Premier Division clash between Bootle FC and West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC.

The original Bootle FC was formed in 1879 and played its first fixture in 1880. The club were Everton FC's main rivals and competed with them for a prestigious place in the newly formed Football League. The Bucks narrowly lost out as only one club per area was permitted to join.

In 1889 the club became founder members of the Football Alliance, finishing runners up and FA Cup quarter finalists. The Football Alliance then became the Football League Second Division with Bootle finishing a respectable 8th but resigned due to ongoing financial problems - ironically being replaced by Liverpool FC - and then folded.

The club was resurrected after World War II and joined the Lancashire Combination in 1948. The Bucks decided not to sign Bert Trautmann, apparently not wanting to cause upset because of local war feelings, and he joined St Helens and moved on to bigger and better things. The club won the league at the first attempt but struggled in the top flight, before resigning and folding during the 1953/54 campaign.

In 1953 the current club was formed as Langton FC, playing in local Bootle leagues then the Liverpool County Combination. Twenty years on there was a successful request to change name to the latest incarnation of Bootle FC.

A year later the Bucks joined the Lancashire Combination and after two championship successes left to enter the Cheshire County League. In 1982 the Cheshire County League was one of the leagues merged to form the North West Counties Football League with Bootle FC a founder member.

After relegation to the Second Division, in 2002 the club dropped back into the Liverpool County Combination as Bucks Park on Copy Lane closed its doors for the last time. Four years later with a new ground, New Bucks Park at Vesty Road (now sponsored by Delta Taxis), the Bucks were re-elected to the NWCFL and promoted as champions to the top tier in 2009 - a third place finish being their best performance since.

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 renamed 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 (still never heard of them !!). They also form part of the club's Krombacher Ultras, named after the lager sold in the clubhouse.... 

And so on a cloudy, breezy afternoon it's on to Manchester Road, past the carved wooden eagle at Altrincham Dental Practice, the Wheatsheaf pub (surprisingly closed) and Champz Bar (unsurprisingly still closed !) to the new M6 / M56 link road.

It's motorways all the way from here - the M6 and a becalmed Thelwall viaduct, the M62 and a quiet IKEA and miles and miles of massive warehouses, and the M57 and its elephant signs for Knowsley Safari Park. The end of the motorway sees 'PIES MUSIC OUT SOON' graffiti, now rather out of date, and Switch Island. Avoiding the signs for nearby Aintree racecourse, past Copy Lane police station then a left on to Park Lane, right into Bridle Street and left into Vesty Business Park.

This brings me to the Delta Taxis Stadium, a football ground with its own wind turbine - much in keeping with the spinning wheels on the roofs of the other industrial units. Inside New Bucks Park to my left are two seated areas, one white and one blue, bisected by the entrance to a busy clubhouse. Further up is a cosy covered (bus) shelter.

To the right is a refreshment bar, Frankie Andys, next to the Dodge Kop, a two step covered concrete terrace with four benches and festooned in flags - 'We Are The Bucks', others honouring players (Cox, Liam Loughlin, Muff) and joined by two from West Didsbury & Chorlton. From the roof hangs a banner 'Nice 1 Jamie'.

On the opposite side are the dugouts and two mini all weather pitches while the far end holds a small grass warm up area. The pitch is bumpy and bare in places and after the incident involving a player's credit card on the field at Barnoldswick, this week a player's car keys are found on the grass......

The Bucks are in blue and yellow, West in white and black. Before kick off there is a guard of honour and round of applause - after a 17 year association with Bootle FC, over 450 matches and more than 100 goals local hero Jamie Hay hangs up his boots today. Fittingly he is given the captain's armband for his final appearance.

In the opening minutes it's all West, with Matty Kay and Ben Steer having efforts just wide and Ash Woods has a shot cleared off the line. The Bucks can only manage a Carl Peers effort straight down 'Bury keeper Aaron Ashley's throat.

Finally just beyond the half hour Steer puts West ahead, fortuitously getting a second chance, steering (!) the ball into the left hand corner of the net. Bootle respond and a ball whipped into the box appears to evade everybody - Liam Loughlin credited with the equaliser.

Shortly after Ashley palms away a long range strike, when he should have done better, and Hay thrashes the rebound home as the stadium erupts. West go straight down the other end and Kay drives home from the edge of the area, low and hard beyond Ryan Jones, for 2-2 at the interval. Four goals in eight minutes and 'I've seen less attempts on goal in a penalty shoot out - and it's only half time !!'

The second period sees the home side take control and after a lovely Peers flick on, Ryan Cox lays the ball off for Hay to superbly curl the ball in from 20 yards. Within minutes Hay's majestic header crashes against the crossbar, and Ashley tips aside Joel Powell's close range effort before producing a magnificent double save to deny Peers.

The Bucks are rampant but surprisingly West get back into the match with a dubious penalty awarded for handball. Kay sends Jones the wrong way to level it up at 3-3 just after the hour. Ten minutes on Woods slices home after some wonderful play from sub Carlos Mendes Gomes and Kay - the finish not quite matching the build up !!

Ashley sensationally denies Cox in a one on one, and then Kay slots home his hat trick after another fine team move – and the six West supporters go wild in the bus shelter !! He is denied a fourth from a free kick as Jones tips his effort over.

The final moments of the match and the ball is played across West's box just too far ahead of Hay, looking for his hat rick - that really would have brought the house/ wind turbine down !! 5-3 to 'Bury at the finish in a fabulous advert for Step 5 football, with Bootle finishing as runners up to Atherton Collieries, and West a best ever sixth.

Barlicked and Saul Destroyed

And so finally, at the sixth time of asking, a visit to The Silentnight Stadium, with today's North West Counties match between Barnoldswick Town and West Didsbury & Chorlton going ahead.

The original Barnoldswick Town joined the Lancashire Combination in 1924, but after finishing bottom in 1932/33 and 1933/34 they left the league. Town joined the Yorkshire League in 1935 but this lasted only a single season and the club subsequently folded.

The modern club was established in 1972 as Barnoldswick United (1972) starting in the Craven and District League. 'Barlick' moved to the East Lancashire League in the early 1990s, then the West Lancashire League in 1997.

In 2003 the club absorbed Barnoldswick Park Rovers and Salterforth Juniors, and was renamed Barnoldswick Town FC. Six years later 'Town' was accepted into the North West Counties Football League Division One, and promoted to the Premier as runners up in their first season. Here they have stayed despite several relegation battles but survival has been achieved comfortably this season, with the bonus of reaching the Macron Cup final.

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 record crowd of 674 for the South Manchester Derby against Maine Road on 27 December last year.

And so on a blustery, cloudy Easter Saturday on to Manchester Road, where Frickin Chicken at the Old Pelican gives way to the Flamin' Chicken then Skullfades Barbershop before reaching T & T Pound Plus....... ELCTRICAL and TOILETORIES have now been joined by a To Let sign.....

Then the M60 Smart Motorway, where 843 cars have run out of fuel since the project started and the only sign of work is one abandoned hi vis jacket..... Barton Bridge inevitably means tailbacks for the Trafford Centre, accidents and, more improbably, overtaking a Birdman Parrot Rescue van !

Then the M66 and its wind turbines in the distance before, with the thermometer plunging from 14° to 7° and street lights on at five to two, reaching the M65 flanked by rows and rows and rows of terraced houses. Vivary Way and Colne, the home of queues, never fails to disappoint and after Storm Hand Car Wash it's into Foulridge, beyond the Four Elephants Indian restaurant and The Old Stone Trough pub, staying in the 'Palatinate of Lancashire' to reach Salterforth.

It's straight on into Barnoldswick, a town dominated by the two major local employers, Silentnight and Rolls Royce. Past Tilltots Perfectly Mad Emporium and Handbags & Gladrags to Gisburn Road, then into Greenberfield Lane, a farm track wide enough for one vehicle only (as I find out later !!) Then into West Close Road and the Silentnight Stadium, originally a grazing meadow for cattle.

I enter the ground at the Sewer End (yes and there's a sign and flag to prove it !!), which hosts the changing rooms, clubhouse and the main all seated covered stand which is split into three separate sections. Behind is the car park, allotments and West Close Farm - but no obvious sewer !

The near side has hard standing and a small, four step covered terrace mid way down. The far side, The Exposed Side, adjoins Barnoldswick Cricket Club and warns us not to stand on the grass banks, but these are just compacted soil mounds with even the weeds struggling to gain a foothold... The top end is the shallowest behind goal area I have ever seen, allowing for standing room one deep - the wall forming the boundary of the detached house which overlooks the pitch.

Barlick are in blue with yellow and their keeper, Jordan Gidley, in all grey topped off with a hideous neck tattoo. West are in white and black.

West's first chance, a 45 yard attempted lob by Matty Kay that barely rises above the ground sums up their first half. Indeed it's all Barlick as centre forward Aaron Hollindrake's volley strikes Kev McGrath but claims for a penalty are denied. West are visibly affected by a serious injury to Nic Evangelinos who leaves the field of play with a dislocated shoulder.

Shortly after a credit card is retrieved from the pitch - which belongs to West's centre half Anthony Potts (how ? why ?) - a move down the right ends with John Beckwith squaring for Aurelian Gohoreanu to smash home with his left foot.

Barlick lead 1-0 on the half hour and it then becomes the battle of the two Aarons. Barlick's Hollindrake has three opportunities to beat West keeper Aaron Ashley, but each time the stopper comes out on top, the last a fabulous double save.

Barlick will rue those wasted chances at the Sewer End, as the second half is a completely different affair. Within two minutes sub Ben Steer plays in Saul Henderson who caresses the ball past Gidley into the corner of the net.

Seven minutes later, following a melee from a corner, Henderson's effort is diverted off the line by the defender performing his best Lev Yashin impression. Penalty but incredibly no card; Kay squeezes home the spot kick and West lead.

A third goal is not long in coming. Steer latches onto a through ball, Gidley saves but from the rebound Henderson scores from a tight angle. Steer is again denied by Gidley and then passes when he should have shot, but 'Bury comfortably ease to the 3-1 win in a real game of two halves - the second of which Barlick didn't turn up for.

West Undermined By Atherton Collieries !

 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.