Five Things We Learned 2024/25 - Gameweek 17
Thu 21st November 2024 | Five Things | By Jay Cooper
1. Oh, please no, not again!
It’s getting closer and closer to what Andy Williams famously sang is the most wonderful time of the year… unless you’re a non-league football pitch. Last season’s brutally raining winter conditions often saw 90% or more scheduled matches per Saturday in the NWCFL postponed, and it made these lists a lot harder to do!
It seems as though Mother Nature is beginning to, slowly but surely, enforce more of her will upon non-league football, as plenty of midweek cup matches have felt her wrath over the last 48 hours. In total, nine matches featuring NWCFL sides were postponed due to waterlogged, frozen or snow-covered pitches, with one floodlight failure at Market Drayton Town just for good measure. Let’s hope it’s not quite so bad this time around.
2. Bury ATE this weekend
A couple of weeks ago, I said that Ramsbottom United were “running away” with the Premier Division, being top of the league by a comfortable 6-point margin, with then-undefeated Bury a good handful of games off the pace. Well, I guess this is the time where I stand corrected.
At the time of writing, that gap has closed to four points, and Bury, still undefeated, are Rammy’s new closest challengers with a bullet. They’re three games behind the league leaders, as of right now, and are flying after Saturday’s 8-0 drubbing of Longridge Town at Gigg Lane. Is this FINALLY their season?
3. Colne commencing their climb
From the top to the bottom of the Premier Division, it has been a fantastic week for Colne. Before two Saturdays ago, Andy Harrison and his team were yet to chalk up a win in league football this season, but you’ve heard the old expression about London buses, right?
This past weekend, Colne were playing host to West Didsbury and Chorlton in what looked to be a tricky test for the relegation candidates, but they made fairly light work of West, pitching a shoutout and bagging two goals of their own to seal all three points for the second week running. They’re now 4 points ahead of bottom club Prestwich Heys. And 4 points behind third-bottom Pilkington.
4. The OLD Route One Rovers
It was really hard not talk about Route One Rovers in every list I did last season. If you wanted goals, the Marley Stadium in West Yorkshire was absolutely the place to be. This campaign, not so much. R1R currently sit 16th in the First Division North, having been unable to replicate their goalscoring exploits from 2023/24.
However, one of the few midweek cup matches that wasn’t postponed on Tuesday allowed for a glimpse of what we were getting every weekend last season. Route One absolutely battered Armthorpe Welfare on home soil to advance in the West Riding County Cup, with Anees Younis, Mohammed Hasnain (2) and especially Zak Khan (3) scoring in a 6-3 thriller.
5. Runcorn’s run begins
You could essentially copy and paste everything I said about Colne and change their name to Runcorn Town for this entry, but let’s go into a bit more detail than that. As of this past weekend, Runcorn Town are no longer the bottom club in the First Division South, with Shawbury United, who didn’t feature on Saturday, now taking that space.
Town have won their last three on the spin, going one better than Colne in that regard, and their most recent victory was arguably their most impressive. Hosting Cammell Laird last weekend, they raced into a 4-1 lead just after half time, and eventually settled for a 4-3 victory to leapfrog Shawbury and close the gap between themselves and the dotted line to a single point.
Five Things We Learned 2024/25 - Gameweek 17
Thu 21st November 2024 | Five Things
By Jay Cooper
1. Oh, please no, not again!
It’s getting closer and closer to what Andy Williams famously sang is the most wonderful time of the year… unless you’re a non-league football pitch. Last season’s brutally raining winter conditions often saw 90% or more scheduled matches per Saturday in the NWCFL postponed, and it made these lists a lot harder to do!
It seems as though Mother Nature is beginning to, slowly but surely, enforce more of her will upon non-league football, as plenty of midweek cup matches have felt her wrath over the last 48 hours. In total, nine matches featuring NWCFL sides were postponed due to waterlogged, frozen or snow-covered pitches, with one floodlight failure at Market Drayton Town just for good measure. Let’s hope it’s not quite so bad this time around.
2. Bury ATE this weekend
A couple of weeks ago, I said that Ramsbottom United were “running away” with the Premier Division, being top of the league by a comfortable 6-point margin, with then-undefeated Bury a good handful of games off the pace. Well, I guess this is the time where I stand corrected.
At the time of writing, that gap has closed to four points, and Bury, still undefeated, are Rammy’s new closest challengers with a bullet. They’re three games behind the league leaders, as of right now, and are flying after Saturday’s 8-0 drubbing of Longridge Town at Gigg Lane. Is this FINALLY their season?
3. Colne commencing their climb
From the top to the bottom of the Premier Division, it has been a fantastic week for Colne. Before two Saturdays ago, Andy Harrison and his team were yet to chalk up a win in league football this season, but you’ve heard the old expression about London buses, right?
This past weekend, Colne were playing host to West Didsbury and Chorlton in what looked to be a tricky test for the relegation candidates, but they made fairly light work of West, pitching a shoutout and bagging two goals of their own to seal all three points for the second week running. They’re now 4 points ahead of bottom club Prestwich Heys. And 4 points behind third-bottom Pilkington.
4. The OLD Route One Rovers
It was really hard not talk about Route One Rovers in every list I did last season. If you wanted goals, the Marley Stadium in West Yorkshire was absolutely the place to be. This campaign, not so much. R1R currently sit 16th in the First Division North, having been unable to replicate their goalscoring exploits from 2023/24.
However, one of the few midweek cup matches that wasn’t postponed on Tuesday allowed for a glimpse of what we were getting every weekend last season. Route One absolutely battered Armthorpe Welfare on home soil to advance in the West Riding County Cup, with Anees Younis, Mohammed Hasnain (2) and especially Zak Khan (3) scoring in a 6-3 thriller.
5. Runcorn’s run begins
You could essentially copy and paste everything I said about Colne and change their name to Runcorn Town for this entry, but let’s go into a bit more detail than that. As of this past weekend, Runcorn Town are no longer the bottom club in the First Division South, with Shawbury United, who didn’t feature on Saturday, now taking that space.
Town have won their last three on the spin, going one better than Colne in that regard, and their most recent victory was arguably their most impressive. Hosting Cammell Laird last weekend, they raced into a 4-1 lead just after half time, and eventually settled for a 4-3 victory to leapfrog Shawbury and close the gap between themselves and the dotted line to a single point.
