Ah yes … Colne! One of our local rivals and, in recent years, a name that has struck fear and dread into all Rammy supporters!
Let’s go for the basic facts first – 29 matches since the first time we met in the semi-professional era back in 1996 and the scores are dead level – 14 wins each, one draw. 45 goals for the Rams and 44 for Colne.
The first ever meeting was on 21 August 1996 then a brace of goals from Craig Chadwick and one each for Martin Hulme and Karl Stanley brought a Tuesday evening success to the Riverside 4-1.
In fact, it took Colne seven games to get their first win, Carl Howorth’s 88th minute strike giving them a 3-2 win on 16 August 2005 under the lights in Rammy after John Blackley and Lee Cryer had given us a lead and equalised respectively.
And it had been pretty much nip and tuck all the way through the clashes – the Rams picking up a huge 5-2 win in April 2011 with Ryan Moore scoring an 11-minute hat-trick.. in front of just 81 spectators!
There was also a 4-0 success in October 2011 in the FA Vase first round – Lee Gaskell, Phil Dean and a brace from Kieron Pickup seeing us through in that particularly memorable season.
Shall we leave it there? We don’t need to go any further, do we? Oh, ok then!
Since Damian Green scored in the 76th minute at the Holt House Stadium in October 2016 to secure a 1-0 victory, it has been a tale of woe for the Rams.
Played six, lost six, goals scored 2, goals conceded 15.
The one thing you will notice as we have a look back through these games is names you recognise from either time spent in a Rammy shirt or time to be spent in one!
It all started on 28 January 2017 when Mark Ayres, Oliver Wood and Jason Hart saw the reds to a 3-0 away day win.
The next season started with a 4-0 success for the visitors with goals from Danny Wilkins, Oliver Crankshaw twice and Lee Gaskell which was followed by a last gasp winner from Matthew Morgan to give them a 1-0 win.
2018/19 season came and Reece Webb-Foster’s early strike past Sam Ashton was enough for 1-0 before February 2019’s visit to the HWRS – Joshua Hine’s pair sandwiching Richard Baker’s give Colne a 3-0 half-time lead with only Nic Evangelinos’ 80th minute consolation to speak of.
It was the first Rammy goal against Colne for 454 minutes!!!
And then there was an FA Trophy preliminary round game. Evangelinos put Rammy 1-0 up before William Harris’ penalty and ones from Sefton Gonzales and Jack Lynch sealed a 3-1 victory.
So we welcome Colne to the Harry Williams Riverside Stadium – maybe in something of trepidation! From a Rammy point of view, let’s hope the result is different tonight.
