It’s derby day
After a flurry of fixtures going Saturday/Tuesday for three weeks it feels like a while since we last played, although it has in fact only been six days.
But if you’ve had a sense of needing a footballing fix, then what better way to bounce back than with a local derby under the lights at arch-rivals Hanley Town.
This is the first Friday night match we’ve had in my time as your correspondent and it certainly adds a little bit to the occasion, which of course, is what our opponents would have been hoping for when the game was scheduled. The return fixture held tantalisingly on Valentine’s Day will also be a Friday night game for the record.
Before we get lost in any predictable jokes about there being no love lost between ourselves and our cross-city rivals, let’s focus on the game.
For Hanley, there can be no doubt that this is exactly the fixture they need – a local derby where form goes out the window or so the saying goes anyway. They are stuck at the bottom of the league having won only one of their eleven league games this season and play arguably the non-league club of the season Hednesford on Tuesday. They know the time to start turning it around is now.
We mustn’t let that happen. With the extra recovery time we’ve had, we are well rested for tonight’s game and go into it – let’s not forget – on the back of a five-game unbeaten run. We’ve no injury concerns to report either, so the game comes at a good time for us.
For the likes of Twiggy and Stubbsy – if fit, it’s still a big ask to expect him to come back into the team after a month out in a game like this – there’s even more riding on the match as it’s a chance to get one over an old team but for our gnarled old pro and gaffer Bakes, it’s just another game. Another game where we need to stand up and be counted and show that we’re a team to be reckoned with.
As we are playing 24 hours – or 19 hours for the more pedantic among you – ahead of most of our league rivals, we would move up from 14th to 7th in the table with a win. That would only be short-lived as other teams catch up tomorrow, but perhaps it gives a short-term indicator of our loftier ambitions for the season.
Bring it on. Come on Castle!