Chadderton 3-0 Cheadle Town

Cheadle signed off 2007 with this defeat at the hands of Chadderton.

Without their entire midfield - Arron, Mac, Andy Lindon and Brocky - Cheadle were always going to find it that little bit more difficult. Conditions should never be an excuse for defeat, but I'm going to use them anyway: wind, rain, more wind, more rain...for the second time on-the-trot yours truly got a thorough soaking when visiting Andrew Street.

Chadderton made the brighter start and found themselves two goals to the good within the first 20 minutes of the match. After just nine minutes a short back-pass was seized upon on the left-hand side, with the resulting strike besting Mellor on his near post. Eleven minutes later and a left-wing cross was missed by the entire Cheadle defence, leaving a very grateful Chaddy striker to tap in unchallenged at the far post.

Had Mike Myers' stinging left-footed drive five minutes later had not been superbly saved then Cheadle would have got a foothold on proceedings and things may have been different, but it wasn't to be and Cheadle didn't seriously threaten the Chaddy net for the remainder of the match, if I'm being honest.

With my clothes soaked through and the wind threatening to give me my second bout of manflu in as many weeks, I retired to the car and watched the majority of the second half through my windscreen. I had a good enough view to see Chaddy's third goal on 65 minutes: a left-wing cross was beaten away as far as the 18-yard box and returned with interest by a curling shot past Mellor.

Fair play to Chadderton - they'll be in the top five come the end of the season for sure - but Cheadle just weren't at the races today. A result to "write-off" and forget about. Roll on 2008 and our next five consecutive matches, all at Park Road....

TEAM: Mellor, Clarke, B Roberts, Cotterill (Brokenbrow), A Roberts, Fellows, Myers (Bennett), Hussain, Flanagan, Martin, Buchanan. Subs: Brokenbrow, Bennett.