PREVIEW – W DIDSBURY & CHORLTON (GAME OFF)
GAME OFF – The frozen and snowy condition have put paid to this match and a new date for the fixture will be announced when known.
Is every day Friday 13th? Has everyone walked under a few ladders? Or put new shoes on a table? Maybe a stream of black cats have passed in front of us! Or perhaps, Mother Football has finally caught up with us after all of our good fortune earlier in the season and turned her ire upon us now. Whatever it is, our luck needs to take a turn in south-west Manchester on Tuesday!
MATCH: West Didsbury and Chorlton v Ramsbottom United
VENUE: Step Places Stadium, End of Brookburn Road, Chorlton, Manchester, M21 8FE
COMPETITION: North West Counties League Premier Division
DATE: Tuesday 16th January 2024
KICK-OFF: 7:45pm
ADMISSION: Tickets can be purchased in advance during the SHOCAL app. Alternatively, Adults – £7, Concessions – £5, Juniors FREE.
PARKING: All parking for cars will be at Hardy Lane car park (M21 8DP) which is a short walk from the ground. Please note that there is NO PARKING on Brookburn Road or any other roads within Chortonville as they are private roads.
OVERVIEW:
The Rams head to West Didsbury and Cholton on Tuesday evening continuing to hunt down a break in their fortunes, an upturn in our form and a result to halt the continuing slide down the NWCFL Premier Division table as the Rams have collected just a single point from the last 15 available.
Two late sickeners, away at Litherland and then at home to bottom of the table Skelmersdale have cost Steve Wilkes’ side three points and leaves them stuck in 15th place. Suddenly, thoughts of reaching the play-offs with a late run of results have been matched by tentative peers over the shoulder at what is happening in the lower reaches of the table. Skem’s win has closed the gap between them in 24th place to the Rams in 15th to just 11 points – it’s 15 points away from fifth where Chadderton sit.
With this season seemingly never ending, the Rams still have 19 games to play – 57 points to play for. And that is something you can hang your hat on, at least.
But whilst the Rams’ form has been awful, the same story can be said for West Didsbury and Cholton as well but they did at least break their seven match winless streak and their one win in their previous 12 with a 2-1 win at home to Barnoldswick Town on Saturday. Having looked to be one of the serious promotion contenders, they have dropped to 10th having played 31 games and are six points ahead of us.
Form and runs of form can be broken and the Rams are in serious need for theirs to end. That is, of course, if the weather permits it from being a two time postponed game as we attempted to head to West on 12 December only to fall foul of a waterlogged pitch.
News from Chorlton will be published on our social media channels on prospects of play during the day on Tuesday.
HISTORY:
It is the return fixure from back in August when the Rams threw away a two-goal first-half lead at the HWRS to draw 2-2 courtesy of Rhain Davis and Lewis Billingsley’s second half strikes.
Here is Will Place’s match report from that day …
That was just the second time we had ever met as the first was in the LFA Trophy in November 2014, the Rams running out 3-0 victors with three goals in the last ten minutes from Grant Spencer, Lee Gaskell and Phil Dean.
STEVE WILKES’ THOUGHTS:
“Weather permitting, we face a West Didsbury side that did what we’ve been trying to do these past few games and get out of this rut we’ve got ourselves in.
“West had lost the previous five games but beat Barnoldswick on Saturday so they’ll be on a high.
“We need to dust ourselves down, roll our sleeves up and work are way out of the run we’ve put ourselves in, and it has to start at West Didsbury on Tuesday night.”
