PREVIEW – CHADDERTON (H)
One defeat in the last seven league games sounds good. One win in the last five in the league maybe not so much. September was a decent month for the Rams with three wins, two draws and two defeats. October dawned with a backs-to-the-wall 2-2 draw on a chilly night in Glossop – it’s a Saturday home game against a progressive side from East Manchester up next.
MATCH: Ramsbottom United vs Chadderton
VENUE: Harry Williams Riverside Stadium, Ramsbottom, BL0 0BS
COMPETITION: North West Counties Premier Division
DATE: Saturday 7th October 2023
KICK-OFF: 3:00pm
ADMISSION: Adults – £9, Concessions – £6, U12 – £1 (with paying adult)
OVERVIEW:
A point a day keeps the doctor away? Is that the phrase? Maybe with a little bit of poetic licence it is but that seems to be the Rams operation at the moment having collected six points from the last four games with one win and three battling draws.
So it is a return to home spoils where draws have been something of a thing – four of them in fact from the seven games played at the HWRS with two wins and the Glossop loss in August. You can be sure that manager Steve Wilkes and his team are not looking overly favourably at that record and need to turn those single points into all threes.
Standing in their way this weekend is Chadderton, a side promoted from Division One North last season and going nicely this year, currently sat in seventh place on 26 points, three points and four places above the Rams having played a game more.
But given the Rams’ recent run of results, Chadderton are also keeping those who loved the pools happy with three 1-1 draws in their last three games too and just one win from their last six games played. Chances of a draw here on Saturday then?
This will be a first league contest between the sides since April 1998 when the Rams ran out 5-3 victors but the side from the outskirts of Oldham are very much a club on the up having not played in the top flight of the NWCFL for 25 years but marched to promotion with 23 wins and just four defeats in finishing second last term behind champions Pilkington.
And they will be looking to turn their recent form around as they keep firm tabs on the play-offs places, as are the Rams but they do need to start collecting three points rather than just the one so regularly as six wins from 15 starts isn’t what the team nor the management will have been aiming for – despite only losing four.
HISTORY:
Check out our “Have We Met?” feature linked below where you can read about the history between the Rams and their opponents.
STEVE WILKES’ THOUGHTS:
“I am looking for a positive bounce back from Tuesday night. To get a 2-2 draw after going down to ten men in the 87th minute, we will take it after having the better of the first half but we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot by conceding poor goals and conceding shortly after we have scored.
“The players have got to address that on the pitch, there is nothing I can do once they cross that white line.
“However, we have shown that we are battling all the way to the end with Conal’s goal. But we have got to start winning football matches and we want the full three points from this game as we haven’t won at home in the league since beating Cheadle town a month ago.
“We are dropping too many points, we all know that and we have got to be better.”
