BURSCOUGH PREVIEW
It’s a funny old game is football. Some days you have the luck and the fortune and sometimes you don’t. After a very positive start to the season, the Rams rollercoaster has hit a few bumps. Time to get back on track as we head to West Lancashire to face Burscough.
MATCH: Burscough v Ramsbottom United
VENUE: The Community Ground, Bobby Langton Way, Burscough, L40 0SW
COMPETITION: North West Counties League Premier Division
DATE: Saturday 14th September 2024
KICK-OFF: 3:00pm
ADMISSION: Adults £7 | Concessions £5 | Under 16 £3. Pay on the gate.
OVERVIEW:
Match number 13 of our league season and here is the first side we are to have played twice this campaign as mid-table and in-form Burscough open their doors to the stuttering Rams.
There has been something of a renaissance for the side in green of late, since they were beaten 4-0 by a rampant Rammy side back in mid-August. They lost their next game against Lower Breck but have won four of their next six, including their last three away at Litherland REMYCA and Stockport Town and home to Prestwich Heys.
Currently in 11th place in the table with 16 points from their 11 games played – with five wins and five defeats – they are in good nick coming into the game.
For the Rams though, it is a slightly different story. Still in second place in the table with 23 points from 12 games, they have collected just four points from the last 12 available, which might not have been the case if they had put the many chances away that have been presented to them.
There were so many opportunities in the FC Isle of Man game that they should have been out of sight by half-time but it wasn’t the case and the island visitors took full advantage to take all three points back to across the Irish Sea.
Manager Steve Wilkes cut a frustrated figure at full time that the same side that hammered South Liverpool 4-0 and took Padiham apart 4-1 is the same side that have tumbled to defeat and, in turn, lost top spot in the table.
What he certainly won’t want a repeat of was last year’s trip to Burscough (pictured above, Oumar Camara scoring on his debut) when they surrendered a comfortable 3-0 lead at half-time in a mad 10 second half minutes to only take home a point from the match, not helped by Maine Walder’s sending off at 3-1.
Time to get back on course but it will not be easy against a side looking at their own possibilities heading up the table.
HISTORY:
This will be the 14th competitive meeting between the sides and the Rams holding a 7-3 lead and 33-15 goal advantage too. Rammy have not lost to Burscough in the league since April 1998 when Burscough took a 1-0 victory at Victoria Park.
Since then, the Rams have feasted on clashes with a 4-0 victory just a month ago with a brace of goals from Rhys Turner and one for Oumar Camara and an own goal. Of course, there was last year’s match as mentioned above but otherwise, the previous game in the west saw victories in 2017 in the NPL Division 1 2-0 and a 1-1 draw in 2014.
STEVE WILKES SAYS:
“Our finishing cost us on Tuesday night and we simply cannot keep missing the chances we are creating like we are.
“They aren’t difficult chances and over the last two games, we have missed eight opportunities in the six-yard box. That’s not good enough.
“However, the good thing is that we are creating chances and we must go to Burscough and take them this time but it won’t be easy against a good side who have found their form of late too.”
