COLNE PREVIEW

Five games in and the Rams are top of the table. That does feel really nice. Of course it is still early days but it still feels good, right! Ok, so who’s next? Oh ….. ohhhh ….. it’s Colne, who we have beaten once in 12 attempts since 2017. And it’s away too – where the Rams haven’t won in eight years!

MATCH: Colne v Ramsbottom United
VENUE: Holt House Stadium, Harrison Drive, Colne, BB8 9SJ
COMPETITION: North West Counties League Premier Division
DATE: Tuesday 20th August 2024
KICK-OFF: 3:00pm
ADMISSION: Adults £7 | Concessions £5 | 12-16 £1 | Under 12 free with adult
RAMMY IN: Blue

OVERVIEW:
What a brilliant start to the season. The Rams sit atop the NWCFL table with 13 points to their name and zero in the defeats column. And we have conceded just four goals across those five league games – we had conceded four before July was out last year in game number one!

The summer shoots of improvement are certainly showing and the trusty Rammy faithful are thoroughly enjoying turning up, watching their team perform and going home with smiles on the faces and into the evenings and nights in celebratory mood. The new signings have slotted in superbly with eight different goalscorers on the tally already – Luke Sephton leading the way with three.

It’s still mid-August but hopes are high that, come April, well … you know! We probably had that feeling back in August and September 2017 when the Rams won four and drew two of their first six games and were sat in second place in NPL Division 1 North under Mark Fell. We won three of our next 17 on our way to finishing in 14th place come April.

Standing in the way on Tuesday night are Colne. Yes, the same Colne that have won 10 of the last 12 meetings between the sides – the Rams’ sole success coming in September 2021 when James Murphy, Eddie Cooper and Godwin Abadaki helped us secure a 3-1 victory but otherwise, it has been a lengthy tale of woe that goes all the way back to January 2017.

In those 12 games, the Rams have scored 7 goals and Colne … 25! The prospect of facing our East Lancashire rivals sends a shiver down the spine – and that’s not just because the game is being played at Holt House, where the Rams haven’t won since Darren Green’s 76th minute winner gave us a 1-0 victory in October 2016 (a game that will be remembered, not so much for the result, but for seeing one of the shortest Rammy careers of all time from Pierre Yamfam – a 78th minute substitute who was sent off for two yellow cards within ten minutes and was never seen in a Rammy shirt again!).

However, while Ramsbottom United have had a brilliant start to the season, the same certainly cannot be said of our hosts, who sit at the bottom of the table with a single point and have hit the net just three times so far, conceding 16 – half of which came in an 8-0 humbling at Longridge Town just a week ago. Colne’s point came from a 1-1 draw with Prestwich Heys a week Saturday so Stuart Mellish’s side will be hoping that the form table is ripped up and they can continue to surf on the Rammy head-to-head history rather than the lull of their season to date.

Time will tell, of course but if Rammy think they are going to continue their superb run of results so far – be warned – the spells upon Pendle Hills might just be cast!

HISTORY:
You will have read plenty of statistics and records already in the article but this is the 36th meeting between Rammy and Colne with the men in red holding an 18-15 lead with only two draws (0-0 in 2022 at HWRS and 1-1 in 2010 at Holt House). Colne hold a 54-50 goal advantage although the record up on the hills is 8 wins each – despite the more recent falterings.

We first met a day shy of 28 years ago – 21 August 1996 at the Riverside where goals from Martin Hulme, Karl Stanley and a brace from Craig Chadwick gave the Rams a 4-1 win.

Pictured above is Luke Sephton scoring in the corresponding fixture last season in which the Rams fell to a 4-1 defeat.

STEVE WILKES SAYS:
“Our performance on Saturday was excellent all-round from start to finish and it was always really pleasing on the eye.

“But we are not getting carried away at all, we know we have a very tough local derby on Tuesday night at Colne and we will prepare right and give them the respect that they deserve – our historical record against them proves that.

“We will go there ready and we hope to keep the good start going.”