Tomorrow's Opponents: Congleton Town

Cup Month: Chapter Six - a Cheshire Senior Cup home tie against fellow Cheshire-ites, The Bears of Congleton Town.

Congleton Town were founded in 1901 and joined the Cheshire County League for the 1920-21 season. They stayed there until the mid-1960s when they left that league and joined the Mid-Cheshire League.

That's when the honours started rolling in as between then and 1978-79 they had won the championship three times and collected runners-up medals three times and all (and one of those was only because of goal average!).

Like Cheadle, they were one of the founder members of the NWCFL, entering at Division 1 level. They were unlucky runners-up in the 1985-86 season when they lost out on goal difference but got their promotion wish two seasons later when they joined the new Northern Premier League (commonly known as the Unibond League nowadays) Division 1. They graced that league for 14 seasons before being relegated back to the NWCFL Div 1 in 2001-02, where they have been ever since.

Their alumni makes impressive reading for those in the football know. Chris Adams went on to play for Altrincham, as did Rod Thornley (who is also the current physiotherapist for England). Another name I know is Ronnie Jepson who would go on to play for Huddersfield Town, Bury and Burnley, to name but a few clubs. There's a whole rack of other names I don't know on their website under the 'Ex-Bears' section - feel free to have a look for yourself to see if there's anybody you recognise.

The "prize" for the winners is a quarter-final home tie against the current holders, Cammell Laird...who incidentally walloped Cheadle Town on their way to strolling the NWCFL Div 2 league in 2005. 9-0 and 7-1 to Cammell Laird, I believe. Good God.

Time to forget about Saturday and move on to new business. Come on Cheadle!