FC ISLE OF MAN PREVIEW
A second home game in a row sees FC Isle of Man cross the Irish Sea and head into town for league match number 12 of the campaign as the Rams look to continue their residency of the top spot of the North West Counties League.
MATCH: Ramsbottom United vs FC Isle of Man
VENUE: Harry Williams Riverside Stadium, Ramsbottom, BL0 0BS
COMPETITION: North West Counties Premier Division
DATE: Tuesday 10th September 2024
KICK-OFF: 7:45pm
ADMISSION: Adults – £9, Concessions – £5, U12 – £1 (with paying adult) – CASH ONLY
OVERVIEW:
Under the HWRS lights once again for our penultimate home Tuesday nighter (as it stands, of course, winter still has to come yet!) as we welcome FC Isle of Man to town for what could be a very interesting fixture.
The Rams maintained the position at the top of the table despite being held to a 1-1 draw on Saturday against Glossop North End but there was a fascinating 1-1 result later in the day as our visitors came within just moments of taking the only remaining unbeaten record in the league as Bury scored in the 97th minute to claim a share of the points.
FC Isle of Man, who were only formed in 2020, have made remarkable strides in the league structure and find themselves in 14th place as it stands with 12 points from their opening ten games, seven of which have been on the road/in the air/on a ferry.
And they come into this fixture with just one win from their last five games, that was last Tuesday night down the road at Prestwich Heys 3-1. But, as their result at the weekend has shown, they are more than capable of upsetting the perceived top sides and come back to Ramsbottom looking to avenge the 2-1 loss, courtesy of Conal Gallagher’s 95th minute winner (pictured above), in the game last season when the Manx side thought they had done enough for a share when Dean Pinnington scored on 89 minutes.
They have secured three away wins from their seven with additional wins at Irlam and Litherlands REMYCA earlier in the campaign and they have four more away games in their next five games coming up too – but they do finish the season with seven home games in a row.
We welcome all of those supporters coming over from Douglas and look forward to affording you a traditional Ramsbottom welcome.
HISTORY:
Just the two previous meetings between the sides with both winning their home games 2-1.
As mentioned above, the Rams took the victory at the HWRS in August but IoM, in front of a crowd of 824, took all three points when Sean Doyle and Charlie Higgins scored in the first half to give the hosts a 2-0 interval advantage but Oscar Radcliffe’s second half strike wasn’t enough to bring anything home.
STEVE WILKES’ THOUGHTS:
“I thought we were really poor in the first half of the game on Saturday and had Brad Rose to thank for keeping it at 1-0 at the break. Having said that, we have missed three sitters.
“We can’t keep going from a performance on Tuesday to one like Saturday, we need to find consistency. FC Isle of Man will not be an easy proposition as they showed on Saturday against Bury so we will not be taking them lightly at all.”
