League reset starts at Wythenshawe
It’s absolutely crackers to be in the league position we’re in both in terms of number of games played and our league placing, but after a long run of cup football, we finally get back to playing in the Northern Premier League West with a trip to Wythenshawe tomorrow.
Our FA Cup run, which ended 10 days ago at Glanford Park, was fantastic both for the players and for the club coffers but it’s time to get back to the bread and butter of league football and start climbing up the table.
Games in hand are one thing but it’s points in the bag that matter and we now have a long run of league games where we can make up some ground on the many teams that are currently above us in the table.
After the frustration of such a late postponement of our Staffordshire Senior Cup tie in midweek at Lichfield City, it’s been a disjointed week. The players trained last night, and one thing is for certain – unlike our next opponents, they are well rested going into what will be a tough game tomorrow in Manchester.
While our game was called off on Wednesday, Wytheshawewere losing 2-1 at Widnes. They’ve had a tough start to life since earning promotion from the North West Counties League last season, conceding four on three occasions as they adapt to playing at a higher level, but we’re bot expecting anything other than a tough test tomorrow.
Assistant manager Paul Wright was in a very positive frame of mind when I spoke to him at training last night. “We’re feeling confident and we’re well prepared for this game,though it was of course frustrating with the late postponement on Wednesday. We’ve got a run of games now in the league and it’s a great opportunity to start moving up that league table.”
“We’ve done our homework on Wythenshawe, yes they’ve had some mixed results, but they’ve also beaten Congleton and won away at Stalybridge, which is a terrific result.”
In terms of team news for Saturday, we know that Stubbsy is going to be out for a while after injuring his foot in the closing stages of the 1-1 draw with Scunthorpe, but better news is the availability of Jack Derbyshire again.
Ethan Vale was back on the bench on Wednesday along with Jack van der Laan and both may be considered in the match day squad for tomorrow.
We said goodbye to Guilherme Baltazar and Ben Woods this week though. Both leave with our best wishes and we hope that they find new clubs that will help them on their footballing journey.
Come on ‘Castle!