West Lancashire League

Premier Division

Saturday 27th April 2024

Kick Off 15.00 On Time!

Burscough Richmond 2 Coppull United 1, attendance 48

18’ 1-0

36’ 1-1

55’ 2-1

@ Richmond Park

Junction Lane

Burscough

L40 5SS

No Admission or Programme.

I had to look at the 3 pm kick offs in order to get in a double today and with the two clubs I hadn’t visited in the West Lancashire League Premier Division both being at home this afternoon, my mind was easily made up. I opted for Burscough Richmond (the other being Hurst Green) as it was the nearer of the two to Ince and arrived a good thirty five minutes before the scheduled kick off. The ground is accessed off Junction Lane, where I turned left into the small car park between Nos. 14 and 12 as I arrived from the south. On entering Richmond Park, there is a bowling green to the left, with the clubhouse/changing rooms adjacent, whilst the pitch is beyond, running at a slight angle. It is fully railed and has a pair of dugouts on the near side. The clubhouse had hot/cold food and drinks on offer and had I known just how good the pies were, I’d have had one pre-match, rather than waiting until halftime!

The match was 5th versus 14th (out of 17) in the league table. Burscough Richmond are the reigning champions, but third place will be their best possible finish this time round, such is the gap between them and leaders Thornton Cleveleys and second placed C.M.B. Although Coppull United could still mathematically be overtaken by second bottom Wyre Villa (it would take a freak set of results) they will survive at Step 7 for another season at least.

Both teams played an open game, with both playing attacking football, with no thoughts of negative tactics at all, which made it an excellent game to watch from a neutral perspective. Burscough opened the scoring after eighteen minutes, beating the ‘keeper at the near post with a diagonally hit free kick from 25 yards. Coppull deservedly levelled nine minutes before halftime, when a cross field pass was chested down and finished clinically into the far corner. What turned out to be the winner came ten minutes into the second half when a through ball was flicked on and finished into the bottom corner. Coppull nearly grabbed an equaliser four minutes into stoppage time when a header from a corner was headed clear off the line.

So, a successful day was had and a good way to notch up the milestone of my 6,000th football ground I’ve seen a match at. It certainly feels like it was a long time coming, not helped by the Covid 19 pandemic and of course the cardiac arrest I suffered that certainly slowed things down considerably!

For the record, the others were….

1,000 – 3rd March 1998 Bridgwater Town – Fairfax Park

2,000 – 13th December 2003 Ferryhill Athletic – Sunnyvale Leisure Centre

3,000 – 9th September 2009 Berkshire County Sports – Berkshire County Sports & Social Club

4,000 – 18th January 2014 R.F.C. Xhoffraix – Rue de la Tournerie

5,000 – 11th March 2018 Pont-A-Celles-Buzet- Rue Norte Dame des Graces

6,000 – 27th April 2024 Burscough Richmond – Richmond Park

Hopefully, both me and the blog will still be going strong when number 7,000 needs to be added sometime in the future…..

Cheshire League

Division 2

Saturday 27th April 2024

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.04

Wigan Town 1 Mersey Valley 0, attendance 39

60’ 1-0

@ Ince Rose Bridge Sports & Community Club (Ince Rose Bridge A.R.L.F.C.)

Pinfold Street

Higher Ince

WN2 2DZ

No Admission or Programme.

The early kick off here gave the perfect opportunity for a double today, even though it meant an early start for the 232 mile drive north to Ince, just east of Wigan. Wigan Town play at the ground of Ince Rose Bridge rugby league club, which means I’ll return to see a game here again one day, as under my rules of ground hopping, I like to visit a ground to see each sport that’s played at a venue.

The pitch is fully railed, with plenty of advert board infills and has a couple of dugouts on one side, as well as being floodlit. The small car park is behind the entrance goal end, which also houses the clubhouse (great collection of well known RL player’s signed shirts on display inside), which was open for business well before kick off and a tea bar was in operation as well, serving from a hatch in view of the pitch. Hot and cold food/drinks were available.

Wigan Town are rock bottom of the league table, having lost all bar one of their 27 league games so far (4-3 away win at Sandbach Town Ramblers) and lost the reverse fixture with today’s opposition 12-0 back in September (one of six double digit defeats they’ve suffered this season) so it didn’t look too promising for them. However, they’ve only lost narrowly in their last couple of matches, so perhaps things are starting to turn in their favour now. A lot of clubs, certainly down here in the south east, would have thrown in the towel by now and would have certainly failed to ‘raise a team’ (can’t be bothered to raise a team in truth) on numerous occasions, but full credit to Wigan Town in completing their season today, having played all 28 league fixtures.

The game never set the world alight, but was competitive throughout and no one could begrudge the hosts their first home win of the season (apart from Mersey Valley of course, but they are safe in mid table, so probably not that bothered). The only goal came on the hour, when a corner was cleared to the edge of the 18 yard box and returned with a first time shot that looped into the top corner, despite the ‘keeper getting a hand to it.

The game was over by 13.50, which left me ample time to head off for my second game of the day.