Witton Albion (H) .. Northern Premier League - West

[Del]

Saturday 30 March 2024 .. kick-off 15.00hrs

We extend a warm welcome to first-time visitors and away fans, here's what you need to know about Keys Park.

https://www.hednesfordtownfc.com/stadium

Local weather forecasts can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2653883
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weat ... /gcqe9zm6y

Admission Prices:
£11 Adults
£8 Concessions – (students, disabled and over 60’s)
£3 Under 16’s
£3 Parking
£2.50 Award-winning programme.

TODAY`S MATCH SPONSORS : Margav Energy of Towers Business Park, Rugeley.
https://www.margav.energy/

[PitmanKeith]

Six pointer must win game.

[Del]

Six pointer must win game.

[Glyn]

Preview:

https://www.hednesfordtownfc.com/2024/0 ... KTVtfBeeM0

[TomR]

Apologies for the stupid question but my son and I will probably only be able to make the second half.
Always been there from the beginning...what's the deal with arriving at half time? Are the turnstiles still open then?

[PitmanKeith]

Apologies for the stupid question but my son and I will probably only be able to make the second half.
Always been there from the beginning...what's the deal with arriving at half time? Are the turnstiles still open then?

Hi Tom,

I've contacted Terry McMahon at the Club and the following is the protocol.


Currently turnstiles are all locked by half time.
Someone arriving late can contact the office on 01543 422870 and ask for access through the front door.


Hope this helps

[TomR]

Apologies for the stupid question but my son and I will probably only be able to make the second half.
Always been there from the beginning...what's the deal with arriving at half time? Are the turnstiles still open then?

Hi Tom,

I've contacted Terry McMahon at the Club and the following is the protocol.


Currently turnstiles are all locked by half time.
Someone arriving late can contact the office on 01543 422870 and ask for access through the front door.


Hope this helps

Brilliant, thank you!

[Lee K]

Who’s excited? COME ON!!!!

[Del]

PITMEN(0) 3 - 0 (0)WITTON ALBION

Scorers : Barnes-Homer(70mins), Verma(86mins), Moke(88mins)

: Thorley, Jervis

Official : 805

[Perton Pitman]

A cliche, but that was a game of two halves. Very poor in the first - we could easily have been a goal or two down - and very good in the last half hour.

I know our manager will try to take the credit, but when I saw the starting line up I knew we would be in for a tough afternoon and those that I stand with agreed with the view that if we could somehow get in at half-time level then changes would have to be made.

Bailey continues to offer nothing and the manager needs to be fair to him and remove him from the side as criticism from the terraces is increasing as time passes. When he went off their was little in the way of applause. The introduction of MBH instantly changed things as he made the ball stick as well as winning the header which went through the keeper's legs to give us the vital first goal.

The introduction of Junior Brown permitted Moke to move further up the pitch where I think he is more effective and this allowed him to intercept a back pass for the third.

In between another fine individual goal for Verma which made the game safe for us when faced with a tricky last 10 minutes.

A huge win, but Witton let us off the hook in the first half. Much better in the second, but I hope that the manager learns from this and starts with his strongest XI on Monday. This means starting Brown in midfield, benching Bailey and giving MBH and Delfonsou the 90 minutes to share. We won't be this fortunate every week.

Sam griffiths man of the match for me. Another fine display at the back.

Good to see Tommo behind the goal with the fans at the end. A nice touch.

[TMVP]

post-match

[Glyn]

[Lee K]

That man loves to praise himself in interviews!

For the first time since he arrived I now believe Paul Moore will do for us what he did for Newcastle last season, and that is to keep the club in the division by getting the results we need to end the season out of the bottom two.
It won’t be pretty, it won’t be attractive or free flowing. It won’t be entertaining but he will get results.
And all that is fine, as long as when the final whistle goes at home to Bootle on 27th April, that we thank him for keeping the club in the division and then politely send him on his way and start the process of recruiting a new manager for next season. He is the Sam Allardyce of the Northern Premier but he won’t get us promoted.

[Perton Pitman]

Harry Harris may be looking at all of this and having a 'sliding doors' moment. Moore is very fortunate that he has been given a massive injection of money that has seen a huge amount of experience (and in some cases some old legs - this must be the oldest side we've had in many years) come in almost immediately following his appointment.
Harris, and Glover before him, had to contend with a constrained budget and that was reflected in the quality on the pitch. Remember the midfield we had at Kidsgrove, for example.
Moore may well keep us up, but it has little to do with his ability or contacts (the lads from Newcastle have done very little). To call him the Big Sam of the NPL is a bit of a stretch. If we stay up it is solely down to the owners and their huge generosity.
I'd like a local manager next season so that we can build a team that can stay together for 2 or 3 years. What we have at present, whilst being effective, is very much a short term fix. I wouldn't keep too many of the current squad for next season as the age profile of the squad means it isn't sustainable. A big rebuild is required and hopefully we will be challenging for the play-offs at step 4, but there is a huge amount of work to be done before we can start thinking in those terms.

[PitmanKeith]

If nothing else eight points from the last four games is certainly working wonders for our PPG.
I'll try and get the latest table posted tomorrow morning.

[Perton Pitman]

From a very quick glance across other Step 4 leagues it looks like all we have to worry about are the two Southern League step 4 divisions. I think 35 points should certainly be enough for us which is a win and a draw. We still have some very tough games to come, but things are looking up. It will be intriguing to see whether we can overhaul Trafford or even Kidsgrove who have only picked up 3 points from their last 10 games. Both have to play each other at some point.

[PitmanKeith]

Current Form Table

Screenshot_20240330_205930_Chrome.jpg

Mondays opponents Nantwich ate just off screen in 2nd place

[TMVP]

Highlights

[sheriff]

class act

[Lee K]

Referees should not be allowed to have haircuts like that. As ghastly as it is, it wasn’t as bad as his performance on the pitch.

PP is unwilling to give Paul Moore any credit at all, but in my opinion he deserves a tiny bit. You can have a larger budget and bring in better players but you still have to get a team spirit together and we’ve only conceded 2 goals in the last 4 games on this mini run so work has been done at the back too in limiting the chances of the opposition.

I do agree that if Moore wants to persist with 1 up front as he probably will do that Delfouneso and MBH should do 45 each if neither are fit enough to play a full game as Bailey is really poor. Even when he had two half chances his shooting was awful. Junior Brown looked class when he came on (and I’m not just talking about his hair, as fantastically styled as it was) but again fitness is probably an issue.

[Perton Pitman]

Referees should not be allowed to have haircuts like that. As ghastly as it is, it wasn’t as bad as his performance on the pitch.

PP is unwilling to give Paul Moore any credit at all, but in my opinion he deserves a tiny bit. You can have a larger budget and bring in better players but you still have to get a team spirit together and we’ve only conceded 2 goals in the last 4 games on this mini run so work has been done at the back too in limiting the chances of the opposition.

I do agree that if Moore wants to persist with 1 up front as he probably will do that Delfouneso and MBH should do 45 each if neither are fit enough to play a full game as Bailey is really poor. Even when he had two half chances his shooting was awful. Junior Brown looked class when he came on (and I’m not just talking about his hair, as fantastically styled as it was) but again fitness is probably an issue.

Without the signings of Rowe, MBH, Moke etc we would not have picked up the 4 points that we have managed in the last week. With the Newcastle lads taking their places instead we would have most likely lost both games. We will never really know of course...

[TMVP]

Inside Keys Park