Atherton LR 4-0 Cheadle Town

Well, another pre-season defeat for the Cheadle last night at Crilly Park. Here's hoping we break the duck at Padiham tomorrow when the serious stuff starts. A million thanks to Cheadle full-back Ben Roberts who provided me with the following breakdown for the match...with the teams and all! Cheers, Ben - you shall go to blog heaven.

5 mins - Cheadle started the game a little lethargic, a few ex-Winsford players featured for LR

10 mins - Cheadle go 1-0 down to a goal by Birmingham a scramble in the box, a neat turn and finish resulting in Mellor picking the ball out of the net

15 mins - Cheadle struggled to get into the game and created few chances

20 mins - Cheadle find themselves 2-0 down after a penalty was conceded for a high foot offence by a Cheadle defender, the penalty neatly converted by Hughes

30 mins - On the half hour mark, Atherton LR were awarded another penalty after an LR striker was pulled down in the area by a Cheadle defender, once again Mellor had no chance as Hughes neatly converted

40 mins - Cheadle stepped up a gear and went close with a strikes from Hussain and Myers.

45 mins - HALF TIME, Atherton LR 3-0 Cheadle Town

50 mins - The whole back four is changed and the new-look Cheadle begin the second half

60 mins - Cheadle looking more lively up front with Thirkle making a nuisance of himself and coming close on several occasions only to be kept out by LR's keeper

70 mins - Number 4...after some good passing by LR, Birmingham was given space to run with the ball and from 20 yards out, curled a great effort into the top corner of the goal leaving our young keeper Adam helpless.

80 mins - Cheadle managed to take control of the game and created some good chances, McDonagh coming close and Carpenter was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet.

90 mins - FULL TIME, not many positives from tonight's game, just nice to play our first game on grass this season.

TEAM (first half): Mellor, McDonagh, A Roberts, Cotterill, Flanagan, Riley, McDonald, Brocklehurst, Carpenter, Hussain, Myers
TEAM (second half): Adam (unsure of surname), Clarke, Logan, Rory (unsure of surname), B Roberts, Gavin, McDonald, Smith, Carpenter, Thirkle, McDonagh

Tomorrow's Opponents: Atherton LR

Unfortunately I can't make this one tomorrow night because of other committments, but Atherton LR - short for Laburnum Rovers - deserve a dose of The Pole's research and homework as much as any other team....

ALR were established as recently as 1956, entering the fun and games of the football league pyramid in 1980 after being accepted into the Cheshire County League. Like Cheadle, they were one of the founder members of the NWCFL in the 1982-83 season.

Despite finishing 17th in an 18-team Div 2 during the 1986-87 season, their facilities at Crilly Park saw them elevated to Div 1, where they then stayed for the next 7 seasons; this really should have been 6 seasons as they won the Div 1 championship outright in 1992-93 but fell foul of the dreaded ground-grading committee.

In the ultimate act of defiance, they then had the best season in their recent history. They won the Div 1 championship again and also reached the FA Vase semi-finals where they lost to eventual winners Diss Town.

They then had two good seasons in Unibond Div 1 but then fell into financial trouble in their third, culminating in their relegation back to the NWCFL Div 1. They were relegated again in 1999-2000 but stormed back into Div 1 after just one season...where they have remained ever since. There is a more-detailed history on their excellent website if you click here.

So, the final run-out before the serious stuff starts at Padiham on Saturday. No silly tackles, lads, and no bloody injuries, please...oh, and if somebody would be so kind as to let me know the score, I'd be most grateful. Ta.

Come on Cheadle!

Glossop North End 4-2 Cheadle Town

Two late goals from Glossop North End ensured that Cheadle Town suffered another pre-season defeat.

Cheadle opened the match with purpose and it paid dividends as early as the fifth minute. Carpenter latched onto a right-wing cross and lashed home from six yards. Thereafter Glossop seemed to get the better of the middle turf, which paid off for them when they equalised after about the 20 minute mark. A right-hand cross was headed back across Mellor's path for a Glossop player to side-foot home unattended.

Right on the stroke of half-time, Glossop were ahead. A lovely ball was fed through to their left winger who advanced on Mellor and tucked a shot neatly under his body. Half-time, 2-1 to Glossop.

The second half was a largely uneventful affair until the last fifteen minutes when three more goals were run in. Starting this miniature goal-fest was Cheadle's McDonagh who, after some confusion in the Glossop defence, found himself clean through on the 'keeper (see picture above). He didn't miss.

No sooner had my cheers for that goal died down than Glossop were back in front. A cross over from the left was found at the far post by an unguarded Glossop player who gleefully slotted home. With just five minutes of the game remaining, and with Cheadle's fitness waining, Glossop put the game out of reach with a neat close-range finish from a left-wing cross.

Without two of our first-team regulars (Heath and Lindon) this was a respectable performance against Div 1 opposition...and at last some pre-season goals for me to report on! The drafts in from the reserve squad put in hard-working, solid performances, especially Scott Clarke at right-back. I expect to see a bit more of him as the season progresses.

Pictures from the match can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: Mellor, Clarke, B Roberts, A Roberts, Cotterill, Brocklehurst, Riley, Hussain, McDonagh, Myers, Carpenter. SUBS: Gavin, Flanagan, Brooks, Smith, Logan

Tomorrow's Opponents: Glossop North End

I had a post all prepared bleating on about a "trip to the gateway to the Peak District tomorrow", but fixture faffage has struck again. Instead, Cheadle's pre-season programme will come to an end at Manchester City FC's training complex in Fallowfield, Manchester...with an 11.00am kick-off, so ignore that little "next match" banner above this post.

Nonetheless, onto our opponents. Did you know that Glossop is notable in footballing terms for being the smallest town in England to own a top-division professional football club? No, neither did I. Before you furrow your brow and start to wonder if you'd somehow missed GNE's foray into the modern-day Premiership, we're talking years and years ago here; 1898-1915 in fact, when GNE played in the Football League. Thesedays they ply their trade in Division One of the NWCFL - where they have been for the past fifteen seasons - finishing a respectable 9th last term.

Cheadle played GNE at Park Road during pre-season last year and came out handsome 3-0 winners with two goals from Vinnie Braine and one from Deano.

Come on Cheadle!

Match report and pictures will be posted late Saturday afternoon....

Weekend World

Through no fault of the club's, Cheadle Town were left without a pre-season friendly opponent on Saturday and so held their own first team versus reserves team fixture to make sure that the players were still ticking over.

The result of this game is beyond me as I took a pass on attending, but if any of the players want to let me (and henceforth the rest of the world) know, then that'd be grand.

That apart, the fact remains that Cheadle Town have suddenly only got one pre-season match remaining - away to Glossop North End this Saturday - to make sure they're tip-top for the August 11th start.

The clock's ticking....

Tomorrow's Opponents: To Be Confirmed

After AVRO FC pulled out of tomorrow's pre-season friendly, we're not quite sure who's going to take to the field as CTFC's opponents tomorrow. I'm expecting a phone call from Steve at some point...

However what we do know is that it'll be taking place at Park Road. If a game goes ahead, words and (possibly) pictures will be on here Sunday evening.

Cheadle Town (reserves) 1-5 Offerton Green

In the end there was no Polardin nor any regular first-teamers that took to the field last night, but it didn't stop me hanging around to watch Cheadle's reserves get a bit of a whipping at the hands of Offerton Green.

I only recognised three faces last night as those who have donned the first-team shirt on a handful of occasions: striker Stuart Kay (who had a solid, industrious game and was unlucky to leave the field through injury), goalkeeper from last season Danny Smith who seems to have fully-recovered from his operations over the summer and bleach-haired Mr Thirkle (his first name escapes me) who was playing last Saturday against Styal.

If I'm being honest and impartial, it was Offerton that asked the most questions throughout the game and - as the scoreline would suggest - were more economical with their attempts on goal.

Cheadle's first strike in anger took 20 minutes to surface with a close shot over the bar, but that's when Offerton's economy started to kick in. Five minutes later they were ahead with a well-worked move that resulted in a shot being neatly tucked under Danny Smith's body. Cheadle's Stuart Kay went close with another shot on the 30-minute mark that was closely followed by Offerton cracking the foot of the post. Seven minutes later and Offerton extended their lead after the Cheadle left-back was punished for dallying on the ball and failing to clear. Half-time, 2-0 to Offerton.

Offerton put the game out of Cheadle's reach on the hour mark with a goal that was nothing short of a catastrophe for the substitute Cheadle 'keeper and the defence as confusion and mis-kicks left Offerton with an open net.

Cheadle finally managed to get in on the tally just three minutes later with a simple tap-in but were given no mercy by Offerton who went 4-1 ahead just three minutes later with a well-crafted goal. A cross over from the right was met with an unstoppable side-footed volley into the corner of the net.

With 15 minutes left Offerton took the scoreline into the "hammering" category as one of their forwards beat the advancing Cheadle 'keeper to the ball to lift it over his head and into the unguarded net.

A rough start then for Cheadle's new reserves team manager Andy Street. I'm sure he won't let it bother him that much as the team have got a whole season to gel.

No pictures, I'm afraid....

Tonight's Opponents: Offerton Green

Tonight's opponents for what we're expecting to be a reserves/first team squad mix are Offerton Green, members of the Stockport & District Sunday League.

They were founded as recently as 1968 and can boast a long list of achievements in their short history, most notable of which are three Bailey & Wright Memorial Trophies, a handful of championships, countless runners-up spots and a semi-final place in the Stockport FA Cup last season. There's an extensive club history on their website.

Like I've said before, we're not quite sure what to expect tonight in terms of a team, but it'll be good excuse to go and see how the Park Road pitch is shaping up for the forthcoming season-proper; given the amount of rain we've had over the past month, I'm expecting things to be a little moist....

Words and pictures from tonight will appear here by tomorrow lunchtime.

And Onto Wednesday....

Usually I'd do a "weekend round-up" of all the results on a Monday but, seeing as how they are "only friendlies" and don't really impact on Cheadle's fortunes, I frankly can't be arsed...and anyhow, the NWCFL official website still doesn't have all the results on (although they have finally got their arses into gear and put all of the new fixtures on!).

And so onto Wednesday's pre-season fixture against Offerton Green...or at least I think "Offerton Green" is what reserve team manager Andy Street said. This one's a 6.30pm kick-off so that things can be finished before there's the need to turn the floodlights on and is supposed to be one for the reserves team, but we were told not to be surprised if a few of the first team regulars get a kick of the ball on Wednesday in order to get them that little bit more match-fit. Hence Polardin and I thought it would be worth making the short trip down to Park Road to have a nosey.

If you want to pass a few seconds of your time then you can have a go at the new poll I've put down the bottom of the right-hand column (you might have to scroll down the screen a bit to find it). Simply use your educated skill and judgement to vote on who you think will run away with the Division Two title this season. Any votes for Castleton Gabriels will not be taken seriously.

Styal 1-0 Cheadle Town

Cheadle Town opened their pre-season programme with this narrow defeat at the hands of Styal.

In the lunchtime rain and on the plastic grass of the Nicholls Centre, it took Cheadle a full quarter-of-an-hour to get going. The first shot across Styal's bows was made by Cheadle newcomer Michael Myers; his mazy run on the 15-minute mark was unluckily ended with a shot just wide of the post. Five minutes later he saw a stinging shot parried away by the Styal 'keeper.

After Styal had arguably the best of the first ten minutes without being threatening, Cheadle were pretty much on top of things for the remainder of the first half with some good passages of play. Newcomer Michael Myers was making a nuisance of himself and fellow newbie Thirkle getting in on the action and all when needed; the closest he came was on the stroke of half-time when he saw a shot flash just wide. Half-time, 0-0.

The Cheadle team that graced the pitch in the second half was completely different to that of the first as Trevor made use of all of his substitutes. One of whom, Scott Flanagan, had Cheadle's best chance on the hour mark; his shot being saved excellently by the Styal 'keeper.

Eight minutes later and Styal were in front with their only real clear-cut chance of the match. A corner was swung in from the left where it was headed - from about two-foot from the ground - down and into the roof of the net. And that was pretty much that in terms of chances as the game petered out to its conclusion.

Despite the result, plenty of positives to be taken, mainly the performance of our new forward Michael Myers. Expect plenty of 'Halloween' references in these match reports as we can see him bagging a handful for the Cheadle this season.

Photos from the match can be seen by clicking here.

TEAM: Mellor, Heath, B Roberts, A Roberts, Cotterill, Lindon, Riley, Hussain, Thirkle, Myers, Carpenter. Subs: Flanagan, McDonagh, Brocklehurst, Renshaw, Logan

Tomorrow's Opponents: Styal

At last. After squandering two-and-a-half months of waffling on about nothing in particular to kill a bit of "blog time", yours truly gets to do his research and write a "Tomorrow's Opponents" post.

Our very own Cheadle Town's pre-season programme kicks-off tomorrow lunchtime at MANCAT College's Sixth Form Centre in Ardwick instead of leafy Styal, home of the famous Quarry Bank Mill (where we've probably all been to during a primary school trip) and the infamous women's prison.

The eponymous football club currently ply their league trade in Division One of the Mid-Cheshire League which - in football pyramid terms - puts them one rung below Cheadle Town.

They were formed in 1912 and joined the Mid-Cheshire League Division Two in the 1977-78 season. Between then and the year 2000 they were promoted to Division One and relegated again before experiencing their richest vein of form yet at the turn of the new millennium. They were Division Two runners-up at the end of the 2000-2001 season and thus promoted to Division One, where they have punctiliously finished in the top six (bar one season) ever since. So, potentially a good run-out for the Cheadle squad to get things going.

It'll be good to see them all again. Come on Cheadle!

Venue & Kick-Off Change for Saturday

[sigh] Fixture-faffage already, and we haven't even started the season-proper yet!

Thanks to Ben Roberts for letting us know that this Saturday's friendly match against Styal is taking place at MANCAT College's Nicholls Sixth Form Centre in Ardwick with a 12.00noon kick-off....which has saved Polardin and I the embarrassment of turning up in leafy Styal in the afternoon with no match to watch!

A preview of the fixture will appear tomorrow.

Pre-Season News - UPDATE

The news of pre-season matches seems to be rolling in a bit thicker and faster now; thanks to our full-back extraordinaire Ben Roberts and "I hope he's fit for next season 'cos what we've seen of him he's not a bad player" David Carpenter for the news.

Cheadle's first pre-season match will be on Saturday 21st July, away to Styal. The only other confirmed fixture date-wise is the already-mentioned away trip to Glossop North End on Saturday 4th August.

Apparently there's an away match at Burnage Metro to fit in and the club are still waiting on Stockport County to come back to them about the usual friendly fixture at Park Road. If the County match goes ahead, I should imagine that it will take place on Saturday 28th July.

By then we should know how Cheadle's league fixtures are going to pan out - they are released on (the ridiculously late) July 22nd.

Pre-Season Friendly News

What's that I hear? Is it the faint rumblings of a pre-season friendly?

If blog regular Craig's tip-off is anything to go by, then yes it is. Internet forum mill has it that our very own Cheadle Town will be travelling to Derbyshire on Saturday 4th August to play Glossop North End.

We played GNE in last season's pre-season programme, notching up a comfortable 3-0 victory at Park Road. If I remember rightly, that fixture was supposed to be in Glossop but got switched back to Cheadle...something we're hoping doesn't happen this time because we like our days out!

Just 32 days, by the way, to the start of the new season........

Cheadle Town 6-0 Cheshire Regiment

CTFC caught 'Regiment stone cold right from the off and banged in three goals in the first seven minutes of the game (Braine, Macca and Dean Martin) - a perfect base from which CTFC launched their final pre-season match of summer 2006. A fourth after a deft finish from Dean Martin saw CTFC take a handsome 4-0 lead into half-time.

'Regiment acquitted themselves well in the second half and were it not for three top-drawer saves from the CTFC 'keeper, they would have got the goal that their play richly deserved. It seemed a bit of a shame, therefore, that CTFC's sixth goal was a Hussain shot that their 'keeper (Trevor Howard's son, nonetheless!) allowed to squirm through his legs.

Despite the lop-sided scoreline this was an engaging night's football; so much so that we forgot how miserable the weather was and Ian "Sweeney Todd" is thinking of coming again. We also got the chance to have a chat to Trevor Howard's dad who enlightened us with the fact that the army runs right through the three generations of Howards; himself, Trevor and obviously his son who was between the sticks for 'Regiment tonight. It's true, you do learn something new every day.

So that's it for pre-season. The serious stuff starts a week on Saturday....

Photos from the evening can be seen by clicking here.

Tonight's Opponents: Cheshire Regiment

Just a quick word about the opponents tonight for Cheadle Town's final pre-season friendly before the main course of the NWCFL (and all the cup competitions) kicks in.

I've tried to find out about their football team but to no avail, so you'll just have to make do with finding out about what the regiment is all about by visiting their website. I'm secretly hoping that it is Dad's Army that are going to turn up tonight as CTFC could do without any injuries with the start of the league campaign only 10 days away!

If you're going tonight, it's a 7.30pm kick-off. We'll be there with Ian "Sweeney Todd" (he came with us on that night to Nelson last season) as his dad used to serve in the regiment. Dad's army, indeed.

Enjoy the match.

(A Few) More Photos from the Glossop Match

All the photos are now in! Click here to go to the photoset.

Cheadle Town 3-0 Glossop North End

As you can see from the picture, the flag got its first airing today; it must have been a good luck charm as Cheadle Town ran out comfortable 3-0 victors over their Division One opponents. Vincent Braine was the man-of-the-match: on the hour mark he rounded the GNE 'keeper and squared for Dean Martin to tap-in and added two goals of his own in the last ten minutes. Well done, lads! Because the match kicked-off at 2.50pm we were able to take in the last ten minutes of the Reserves' match. Unfortunately we were just in time to watch GNE claim the only goal in that game....

Photos from the day can now be seen by clicking here. More will be added once Polardin gets his @rse into gear and e-mails me his pics!!

Three Balls On Our Pitch (Cheadle Town 3-0 Glossop North End)

Two men and their dog went to watch a Cheadle

August the 12th seems a hell of a long way away still, the papers are awash with so many ludicrous stories as the Premiership splits itself into 3 separate leagues: the Chelsea league, the Champions League Position league and the Relegation league.

How it amuses to see the press collude with the whole scene. The Premiership sells papers, sells Sky boxes, pays wages and the whole thing is a feeding frenzy of greed and over-blown nonsense. Man Utd, so desperate for money, squabble over transfer fees that are so bloated because of the Chelseas riches; Liverpool, left to pick up the scraps, ignore their tradition and sign footballers crude in manners and in potential; Arsenal give in to the inevitable and give Cole to Chelsea receiving a sum that will never enable them to compete.

The rest of the league is totally interchangeable; would anyone notice if Charlton and Newcastle did a full squad-change? Or Fulham and Middlesbrough? And so on and so on. Are they playing for safety or are they doomed to relegation?

Football is 11 men against 11 men and a leather ball. God bless it for that. And what a fantastic sport it is when played in the true spirit. As football eats itself and cycling implodes on a drugs binge, other sports at other levels flourish, because you can't destroy the need for sport. You can't buy it off or drug it into oblivion, but there will always be the grassroots.

Cheadle Town truly do not dive and there is the point in a nutshell. To dive is to cheat, to cheat is to turn your back on what sport is all about; the England team were caught in that folly during the World Cup talking of the winning being everything and performances not relevant, oh how wrong, how wrong they were.

As our pre-season friendly played itself out yesterday there was a moment of sublime skill. A player trapped the ball in motion on the touchline and with the instep flicked a pass into the momentum of a forward running player. A quick interchange of passes followed and a triangle of pure football class was drawn. Brilliant true art.

" When the ball hits the goal like a big pizza roll that's a Cheadle...."

Cheadle Town 0-1 Stockport County XI

The traditional pre-season encounter with Stockport County ended in a 0-1 reversal for CTFC today, with the Park Roaders succumbing to a well-struck County goal on the 10 minute mark. CTFC played a lot better in the 2nd half and, on any other given Saturday (I'm gonna be saying that a lot this season) may have claimed a draw given the amount of half-chances they managed to carve out. Some encouraging signs for the season ahead.

As you can tell from the picture above and the top banner on the page, CTFC have changed their kit colour. Again. As long as I have known them, they have gone from playing in all-white, through blue-and-yellow and now the current strip: a (rather smart, it has to be said) sky-blue and white striped shirt, navy blue shorts and navy blue socks.

Which means that the flag that we have just paid £100 for is now the wrong colour or, as we would now like to refer to it, retro. If I didn't laugh, I'd cry. Nonetheless it will still be taken with us on our travels and have its big "unfurling" for the Runcorn away match on August 15th. I just hope CTFC have kept blue and yellow as the away kit....

For the full set of photos, click here. Once there, use the box on the right-hand side of the screen to go through the photos.