OTS – 20th JANUARY

It’s mid-January and the weather had firmly taken a grip on the programme across this particular Saturday in our non-league history although there was some news out of the club and one result – here’s Satuday 20th January!

2018 – RAMSBOTTOM UNITED v SCARBOROUGH ATHLETIC – POSTPONED
Evo-Stik Northern Premier League North Division

The Rams’ home game scheduled for this day in 2018 was postponed due to a frozen pitch … sounds familiar!

2007 – MATCH POSTPONED
North West Counties League Division 1

There was no game for the third weekend in a row for the Rams who were caught in a frozen rut.

But it has not stopped hard work going on around the Riverside stadium as the erection of new turnstiles was nearing completion.

Works started a week or so previously and, at a lot of expense and hard work, the club were able to announce the ground is gearing itself up for a push for UniBond football (we were still five years away from reaching that goal!).

More off field work was to ensure that the Easter Saturday fixture against FC United of Manchester was given the go ahead to be played at the Riverside with the police giving it the green light. The ground was graded to allow 1,750 fans … although the attendance for that game well passed 2,000!

2001 – ATHERTON COLLIERIES v RAMSBOTTOM UNITED – POSTPONED
North West Counties League Division 1
(report from Lancashire Telegraph archives)

A bitter frost put paid to the Rams’ scheduled game away at Atherton Collieries, leaving us faced with a lengthy backlog of fixtures.

No side in Division One had played less than Rammy’s 16 completed league games up to the date, which meant that 26 games were still to be played!

The weather didn’t really improve very much although we did get three games in before the end of the month and four were played in February – but the league campaign rolled all the way through to mid-May!

1996 – RAMSBOTTOM UNITED 3 STANTONDALE 0
North West Counties League Division 2
(match report from Rossendale Free Press)

Ramsbottom United manager Ken Bridge was pleased with the attitude of his players in the 3-0 victory over Stantondale.

Mark Keegan hit two of the goals with the other coming from Martin Hulme.

Bridge said “It was an excellent performance – a vast improvement from the week before.”