Witton v Stamford

First Team On the Park
1

Unfortunetly I will be away this weekend so will miss the game so just want to wish everyone good luck for the game and I will be looking out for a good result.

Taken from the guardian website;

Witton v Stamford: preview
By Andrew Simpson

Witton Albion v Stamford (ko 3pm)
UniBond Premier Division
Venue: Wincham Park
Previous meeting: n/a

Witton (from): Kennedy (GK), Spearritt, Barras, Pritchard, Brownhill, Tickle, Dillon, Lloyd, Brown, Danylyk, Peers, Proffitt, Brodie, Warlow, Crowe
Injured: Foy, Frost, Royle, Turley
Suspended: Kearney (two matches)
Form guide: LW

Stamford (from): Sanna (GK), Conroy (GK), Burrows, Hardy, Jones, Taylor, Julian, Hipkiss, White, Liam Powell, Rhys Powell, Willets, Matthews, McMahon, Wilson, Foster, O’Dea, Darby, French, Whyley, Turner, Mettam, Cooper, Childs, Ward, Miller
Doubtful: Colkin (leg), Battersby (bruised foot)
Injured: Marshall (calf), Bowater (back)
Suspended: none
Form guide: LL

Match pointers
Liam Brownhill should have shaken off a calf injury in time to take his place in the starting line up tomorrow, while Tony Barras is expected to return to the heart of Albion’s defence after tweaking a hamstring at Lincoln last weekend.

Stamford have had a tough start in their first campaign in the UniBond Premier Division, losing at home to Guiseley on the opening day then going down at Ilkeston Town in midweek.

Daniels boss Graham Drury has ordered his players to cut out the mistakes if they are to be successful. Both defeats have been blighted by conceding too many sloppy goals. "We have got to defend better, get switched on and cut out our slap-happy marking," he said this week.

The two teams met for the first time in last season’s FA Trophy when Witton ran out 3-0 winners at the Vic Couzens Stadium. With a trip to Kendal on Monday and Stamford’s fellow newcomers Eastwood to visit Wincham next weekend, Jim Vince will be looking for maximum points.

9:15am today

2

will hopefully be able to make the game tomorrow and looking very much forward to it! I believe if we put in another performance like Tuesday night we cant go far wrong! Come on Witton!

3

COME ON THE ALBS!!!

Lets get the banter started…

Im going for a 3-0 (warlow 2, proffit) attendance around 420

whats every1 else reckon?

4

Sorry to say that i cant make it to the game today, as im working at Alton Towers :frowning: I see today’s game as a great chance to claim all 3 points. Give the lads a shout from me !

5

Another one who can’t make the game today and relying on txt messages for updates. Gutted doesn’t come close to how I feel about missing the game!

Good luck to all the lads and another 3 points please!!!

6

Might be a few less than 420 given the amount of people away this weekend, but that said the crowd midweek was very good and there are a fair few juniors that may turn up.

I’ll go for 2-0, as well as scoring it would be nice to keep a clean sheet. As long as we win, that is the main thing!

7

Fingers crossed that Adam Warlow gets off the mark today. I’m sure once he gets that first goal he will start knockin them in for fun.

He needs to score just to get his own back on the kids who were ribbin him at the soccer school!!

8

any updates

9

four nill to witton pearse with two warlow and pritch got the others

10

Second in the table now, early days but a couple of good results next week and things will be looking very rosy. Another excellent footballing performance, got the impression that we were very much thinking of Monday’s game when we took it easy second half.

11

EXCELLENT RESULT ,

12

UniBond League – Premier Division - Saturday August 25th 2007

WITTON ALBION 4 STAMFORD 0 att. 353

TEAM: Kennedy; Spearritt, Pritchard, Barras (Danylyk 58), Brownhill; Peers, Lloyd, Brown (Dillon 61), Brodie; Warlow, Crowe (Proffitt H/T)

Man of Match : Mark Peers

Albion had this first ever league match between these teams truly sewn up by the half-time whistle with the visitors’ cause not helped when Robert Hughes, who’d appeared four times for Nottingham Forest last season, kicked out at Rob Lloyd to collect a straight red from Southport referee Peter Wright in only the 13th minute of the match. Thus a strange statistic sees, for the third consecutive match Witton’s opponents finishing with ten men on the field of play.

Albion’s first chance of the game fell to Dean Crowe in the 5th minute when he headed over. From the free-kick, following Hughes’ dismissal, Brian Pritchard saw his looping headed attempt finally gathered by the keeper as he fell onto his goal-line. Alex Brown next tested Chris Sanna whilst Liam Brownhill sent his shot narrowly wide of the upright. Witton were eventually sent on their way in the 23rd minute when Pritchard’s curling clearance, up the left touch-line, was collected by Lloyd, he quickly released MARK PEERS who went on a surging run, that included evading a wild attempt by Mark Burrows to stop him, before planting the ball past the Daniels’ custodian from 18 yards.

Another Pritchard header was bundled away for a corner by Sanna before the keeper pulled off a brilliant full length flying save to keep out Adam Warlow’s header from a Brownhill cross. Eventually it was MARK PEERS who was rightly credited with extending Albion’s advantage in the 40th minute, Lloyd cleverly stepped over the ball when a free-kick was awarded just outside the penalty area and Peers shot was deflected past the luckless Sanna, off the head of Leon Mettam.

Just before the break an effort by Warlow from a Peers’ cross ended in the side netting but in the 3rd minute of stoppage time Steve Brodie made a run to the left side by-line before crossing low into the danger area where his cross was met by the inrushing ADAM WARLOW to net his first goal of this campaign.

Three minutes after the interval Warlow was on the end of a Lloyd free-kick but saw his diving header saved by Sanna. Brodie again produced great by-line work with Sanna clutching the ball at the base of the near post. Warlow was found guilty of missing a great opportunity in the 52nd minute when he stumbled when one on one with the keeper and then Brown sent his shot inches wide of the right side angle.

The nearest Stamford came to clawing a goal back came in the 57th minute when Kevin Childs’s approach work mirrored his Witton counterpart Brodie but no-one followed up quick enough as the ball flashed across the face of the Witton goal-area.

It was then left to the Albion “veteran” to apply the finishing touch two minutes later when BRIAN PRITCHARD got forward to get on the end of a superb Peers’s cross and score with a downward header. Peers himself then saw Sanna produce a full length diving save to keep his shot out and a defender quickly got in the boot the ball out for a corner.

The final twenty minutes saw Albion sit back on their advantage and one just hopes that when a team was there for the taking they won’t rue that come the end of the season. However a first clean sheet combined with no Albion player being cautioned were great plus points. So this win has taken them to 2nd in the table and in Mark Peers, Witton possess the league’s current leading scorer.

13

For thode who asked I can say my wife is fine now. Extremely pleased for all Wittoners on this result, and Vics lost too!! I watched Northwich Rugby Club lose to Sale 10-36, excellent game.
WHS.

14

Fantastic performance this afternoon. We were very professional, this game was effectively over as a contest by half-time. Peers took his goal superbly well and indeed the free kick that led to the own goal was whipped into the perfect area. Great to see him in such good form.

I thought the 3rd goal was one of the best you could ever wish to see, not least for the simplicity of it! Lloyd’s driving run forward, the quality of his diagonal ball to Brodie and his perfectly weighted and placed first time cross, meant that Adam or another players running in was left with a tap in. We made it look like a traning ground move! To score a third just before half time showed great attacking play, many teams at 2-0 would have settled for that at the interval.

We are always in control of games when we press the opposition and should never be tempted to sit back, this is how we played when we were scoring 5, 6 and 7 goals at the start of the year. It is so entertaining to watch.

Big Stu made a good point (I know that is twice this year) in the club at half time - when you compare how much it would have cost people to watch England on Wednesday night compared to the money to watch us today, which game offered better value. On the face of it this is a crazy comparison given the £200+ million of talent (?) in the England squad with non-league football 3 levels below the league!!! BUT, I think he is right. Proof if ever it was needed that irrespective of the league we are currently playing in that you can play entertaining football. Remember we could have gone up last season and it would not have been unreasonable to assume a finish in the bottom half of the table, games at Burscough, Barrow or Boston would not automatically have been as entertaining (arguably if or when we go up we need to be prepared for this).

Whilst it certainly did not feel so at the time, the timing of the Lincoln defeat may prove to have done us a big favour. We looked different class this afternoon and these are great times for the club and the fans.

I know we should focus on us and not our neighbours but it also tells you something when they took 27 supporters to Crawley this afternoon and we took 70+ to Lincoln. Same for Stamford, when we go there we will probably take 60-70 again, I think they brought 4 this afternoon and one of them was the coach driver!

We need to get the chants going, keep behind this great squad of players.

See ya Monday

15

Excellent performance . Not taking anything away from Mark Peers - he was differant class - but the skill and experience of Brodie, Crowe and Baras is showing thro and what we were missing at times last season.

WHS see u next Sat at WP

16

Again, i really enjoyed the game today! I thought like tuesday we played pretty awesome football and also like Tuesday peersy was immense and playing with a smile on his face is only too good to see! I can see peersy being a vital player for us this season! Wel done boys and lets keep this up on monday! Come on Witton!

17

great performance from the team today. mark peers was outstanding. all of the team played well. lets have a bit more of that on monday. Well done lads.

18

Seldom do I get stuck for words, but this is one of those rare occasions!!! Thankfully I have dug deep and found a few :slight_smile:

Alan at the end of the day you are a Witton fan and that makes you welcome at Wincham Park for as long as you wish to come. If you have genuinely decided you don’t want to attend then equally this is your choice, nobody can force anyone to attend (although they may need to start locking the doors at the V.S. to keep their crowd in).

My only comment would be, why post that you went to watch Northwich Rugby lose to Sale, is this purely to get a reaction? I don’t know much about the Rugby set-up by my belief is that they are further away from the top league in their sport than Witton are the Premiership, the atmosphere and attendance can surely not match Wincham Park. What was their game today - a friendly? All I can say is that you missed a fantastic Witton performance this afternoon and some very good goals - it is a performance that I think you would have enjoyed watching (which is my point).

If you genuinely find matches at WP a "chore" then I reiterate then you are entitled to your opinion despite me not being able to understand it. When we get loyal fans of the club the last thing we can afford to do is lose them. You don’t need an invitation to come and watch us, this is your club as much as every other fans. Before you are inflicted with additional misery by watching Rugby get yourself down to the club or better still have a nice Bank Holiday Monday trip to Kendal. (Sorry egg chasing fans - I do know you had a good season last year).

As I say your choice!

19

Class performance today, nice to see every single player in the team, including the subs, making a contribution. Also nice to see a good performance by the officials, for the second game running.

I’m impressed by the way we’ve picked up where we left off last season, playing highly entertaining football - and maybe we’ve added a bit of savvy too, we closed down the last two games, not doing anything silly, just making sure of the result, but without being boring about it.

Hard to draw any definite conclusions this early, not sure how much we’ve been stretched by the opposition, but we may well be even better than last season, and we look to have strength in more depth as well. Well done, Jim and Nigel.

Just one complaint - so far, the atmosphere behind the goal isn’t quite what it was! It’s not bad, but where’s the songwriting team and their acolytes that brought us such wit and wisdom last year?

I’m sure it’ll pick up soon - here’s looking forward to another great season!

20

Well done to Jim and the Lads, everyone is contributing and Peers is peerless!
I’ll single out Dean Crowe who didn’t play at Lincoln,but has been a major factor whilst on the pitch in the next two games. He holds the ball well,uses it well and is in the face of the opposition. His experience shows and he’ll be good for Adam Warlow.
But the feel all round is good, keep it up!
(what’s the point of posting about rugby?) ???
See you all Monday :smiley: