Category: First Team News

Awards Night 2024/25

This seasons awards night will be held at Oaklands Hall, just up the road from the football club.

The date is Friday 2nd May, kicking off at 7pm.

A chance to come and see the annual awards for different categories.

  • Supporters Goal of The Season.
  • Supporters Player of The Season.
  • Players Player of The Season.
  • Managers Player of The Season.
  • The Golden Boot.
  • Sponsors Player of The Season.

Cost of your ticket includes entry and your food for the night.

All proceeds will go towards the refurbishment of the Social Club.

Get your tickets here, https://app.fanbaseclub.com/Fan/Tickets/SelectType?fixtureId=11242 , all you need to do then is show your QR code from the E-mail you get sent after purchase, or if you have the FanBase App, you can show it in the Apps wallet.

 

 

Deadline Day signings

With the deadline for signings now passed, coming in on loan is forward Sandro Da Costa from Salford City.

Sandro started his career at Manchester United before joining FC United where he impressed enough to be offered a full time contract

This season the Irish born forward has had spells at Bamber Bridge and Warrington Rylands and is in the squad to face Whitby Town tomorrow

Also joining on Work Experience from the Ammies are Alfie Bairstow and Harry Showman

Manchester Premier Cup Final – Venue change

We can confirm there has been a change in venue for the ManchesterPremier Cup Final against Irlam FC

The tie will now be played at Broadhurst Park, home of FC United, on Tuesday 15th April, 7.45pm kick off. Tickets will be available from the club, details to be confirmed.

 

Reduced admission for Non-League Day

To celebrate Non-League Day, which takes place this coming Saturday 22nd March, we are offering reduced admission for our fixture at home to Prescot Cables.

The admission prices are:-

Adults £10

Concessions £7

Under 18’s £5

Under 12’s £2 (Must be accompanied by an adult)

Get yourself down and get behind the lads

Nick Spooner – Worksop Town post match thoughts

On the defeat

It was very harsh, I just said to the lads, and I said to the supporters, that at the beginning of the season, this year was always going to be a learning curve and they’re learning the hard way.

You probably can’t get two more contrasting teams; they had a group of men, we had a group of kids. We finished the game with our oldest player being 27.

But I thought the performance was excellent. We had a game plan to frustrate them in the first half, slow the game down, and I just told the boys to play football.

That’s what I said to them at half-time as well, I told them they had gone away from what we had planned to do. We were supposed to move the ball quickly and knock it about.

They made changes, they had to make changes, the big lad, (Liam Hughes) has come on and done what he’s good at.

On the goals conceaded?

The first goal is really frustrating  first of all, we should have cleared it better, and then you can’t let the big man have three touches in our box. But I thought our response was outstanding we created chance after chance.

It came down to decision-making, and that’s been our season in a nutshell. In both boxes, we should have scored more goals, and we should have defended better.

We equalised, but then they came back with a great header, and the third goal came from a mistake.

I’ve analysed the game with the lads, and they’ve done everything I asked, especially in the second half, which I thought was tremendous. But two mistakes in our box, two mistakes in theirs and that’s football, unfortunately.

On being braver on the ball

I told the lads, if we try to battle against them, we haven’t got a chance. I thought we defended well at times, but this is a tough place to come. I kept telling them to believe in themselves, In the second half, they stuck to the plan and we sucked them in to go long and then played through their press.

If we had scored that second goal when we were on top, I think we would have gone on to win the game.

On  the current state of the injuries

Shaq came off with a dead leg. You could see he wasn’t himself. Lewis Thompson is going to be out for another three or four weeks.

You look at their bench, and I don’t even want to think about how much money they had sitting there.

We had a young academy lad as our substitute goalkeeper, young Frankie on loan from Halifax, and Ayo and Brad coming back from injury. So yes, we are a bit short, but it is what it is.

You have to look at the resources we have as a club, decisions need to be made, we’re just trying to stick at it.

Is the focus now shifting towards next season?

No, I don’t want to do that. I want to finish as high as possible. We knew this game today wasn’t going to define our season it was always going to be a tough one. Last week was disappointing, but we need to finish strong.

Why can’t we go on a run and get sixth place like we have in the last two seasons? Let’s give the supporters something to cheer about, get some wins on the board. The lads need to start believing in themselves.

We’ve been saying it from day one there are some good players out there. Are they tired? Yes, they probably are.

A lot of them have never played this much football before. But we’ll stick together, and we’ll keep pushing.

Manchester Premier Cup Final – Date Change

The date of the Manchester Premier Cup Final has now been changed (from April 8th) and officially confirmed as Tuesday 15th April at Boundary Park, Oldham with a 7.45pm kick off.
Ticket information and further details will follow once received from the Manchester FA

Special moment for Ricardo

A special moment on Saturday as Ricardo Da Costa, came on a substitute against Whitby Town, and became our youngest ever first team player to represent the first team at 17 years and five months beating Reece Mellor from last season at 17 years and eight months.

 

 

Nick Spooner reaction – Whitby (H)

Nick Spooner spoke after the 1-1 home draw at home to Whitby Town

”A very frustrating afternoon. The bookies must love us yet another draw! I thought the first half was a disgrace. We just weren’t at the races, and I must apologise to the fans for that.

I’ve never known us to have that many players off the pace. We just didn’t create anything, We did have two chances and should have taken them, but they could have had three or four goals. So, yes, it was a shocking first half and yes, we got in behind them and missed two one-on-ones with the keeper. Those chances probably would have settled the game because they’re fighting for their lives at the bottom of the league. If we’d scored, their heads would have gone down, and they would have had to come out more, which I think would have played into our hands. But fair play to them—they gave us a scare in the first half.

On getting a response in the second half

The second half was much better. We controlled the game and limited their chances, I can’t even remember our keeper making a save in the second half. Their keeper, on the other hand, made a couple of good saves.

We got crosses into the box, and we had headers at the far post. With a bit more quality, we should have won the game.

On keeping an unchanged starting line up

We had won our last two games, one-nil at Hebburn and one-nil at home, I thought those were good performances.

It’s always difficult when you’re not starting with Redshaw because you want to get him in, but I wanted to be loyal to the players.

Unfortunately, after that first 45 minutes, loyalty goes out of the window so if you’re not working hard and not playing well, you won’t stay on the pitch. Redshaw was desperate to come on, and he did his bit when he got the chance.

After the goal we huffed and puffed. To be fair to them, they went for the win as well because they knew how important three points were.

That left gaps in midfield, which I think we started to exploit. We looked more dangerous on the counterattack but we lacked that final bit of quality. We could have picked out the final pass, but we rushed it and that’s been the story of our season.

We’ve played good football but haven’t been clinical in the final third, and that’s cost us.

Overall, I’m disappointed with the first half but pleased with the reaction in the second half. However, we needed three points at home.

I’m not writing off the league, today could have put us right in the mix. If you look at the fixtures, we’ve got to go to Stockton, and they’ve got a lot of tough games ahead.

We’ve been in that position before where teams are chasing you, and it can get nervy.

We can play with a bit of freedom now, but today was a missed opportunity to put some pressure on. That said, we’re unbeaten in three or four games now, so we’ll keep going and hopefully pick up some results in the cup as well.

On some decisions by the officials

I don’t want to comment on the referee. He’ll have a long meeting with the assessor today, and hopefully, they’ll have a good discussion about what went on.

When both managers are shaking hands and laughing at the decisions, I think that tells you everything you need to know.

On the chance to reach a final on Tuesday

Yes it’s a brilliant opportunity, That’s why I’m so disappointed today, I wanted us to be fighting on three fronts.

This was our game in hand, and we’ve wasted it!  We’re already in the Manchester Cup final, and now we’ll be going all out for the Cheshire Cup as well. There’s still so much to look forward to.

Brad Cooke has gone in at Runcorn and done a good job, so I’m expecting a tough game over there.