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25th November 2006
The top two in the First Division Buxton and Stocksbridge PS both had home wins and whilst Buxton hold a five point advantage over the Steels there is now a further eight point gap to the chasing pack many of whom were not in action.

Mark Reed scored four in Buxton's 5-0 win and another player to hit four was Goole's Andy Parton who the club have placed on contract after his scoring feats in the past month. In the FA Trophy there were away wins for Gateshead, Witton Albion and First Division Woodley Sports.

Another Division Comes A Step Nearer For The Unibond League

A meeting of the Football Association's Leagues Committee held at Soho Square on Thursday agreed that there will be six Divisions at Step 4 of the game (the level at which the UniBond League First Division operates) from season 2007/8 and two of those Divisions will be administered by the UniBond League. It was also agreed that each of these two Divisions will consist of a minimum of 18 clubs.

To achieve this, no more than three clubs from any league at Step 5 will be promoted except with the permission of the league concerned. In order to be promoted clubs must achieve Ground Grading Category E by 31st March 2007. The Leagues Committee will appraise the situation at its meeting on 21st February 2007. The decision is subject to approval by the FA Council.

Bamber Bridge Unveil New Chairman

Bamber Bridge's new Chairman taking over from Nigel Webster who resigned recently is 54 year old Terry Gammans who hails originally from London. He says: "I want to see the club become the hub of the local community as we have some great facilities here whilst on the pitch I am confident we can push for promotion next season".

Moss Takes It In To Double Figures

Hard on the heels of Tony Hesketh's decision to leave Kendal came news that Ernie Moss had stepped down at Belper Town following his side's fifth defeat in their last six league games. Moss, who made more than 500 appearances for Chesterfield in his playing days and was a member of Mansfield Town's Division Two championship winning side in 1977/8, held a meeting with the players after last Saturday's home defeat by Clitheroe and took their views in to account. He said: "We spent 45 minutes talking to the players and told them we wanted to know how they felt and to be fair half of them spoke up". Moss, who has also managed Boston United, Gainsborough Trinity, Leek Town, Matlock Town and Hucknall Town, had been with Belper since January 2005 and in his first season steered the club clear of the relegation zone.

Director of Football Andy Carter took charge of the team for Tuesday evening's Derbyshire Senior Cup win over Glossop North End whilst goalkeeper Andy Carney and club skipper Danny Hudson took over team affairs for Saturday's trip to Colwyn Bay.

Woodley Culprit Hands Himself In

The publicity generated in the local and national press together with TV coverage by Channel M - the local TV company that covers the Greater Manchester area - and which was present with its cameras at the game plus an offer of a reward of £1,500 from Woodley Sports FC left the person who fired an arrow on to the ground causing last Saturday's game between Woodley Sports and Alsager Town to be abandoned feeling the heat. He contacted the Police of his own volition saying he had not acted in malice and the 29 year old man was arrested on suspicion of affray on Tuesday but released on police bail until 2nd December pending further enquiries.

The League, after consulting with the Police and the Football Association, had ordered the League Cup tie on Tuesday evening where Warrington Town were the visitors to go ahead but were never the less relieved to hear the news that the culprit had been identified. The League will now have to make a decision on what to do about the abandoned game which stood at 3-0 in Woodley's favour with thirteen minutes left.

The unwanted incident, ironically, has given the UniBond League First Division its most coverage ever around the world. The UniBond name was mentioned far and wide as even major American TV channels such as Fox News, ABC News and ESPN covered the story in detail whilst a host of North American newspapers including the likes of the Toronto Sun, Lexington Despatch and Boston Herald all had full details of the incident that occurred "during the UniBond League First Division match between Woodley Sports and Alsager Town in England". Indeed, the Herald's headline was "Sherwood Forest Revisited".

League Cup Moves Towards Last Sixteen

Midweek saw the UniBond League Challenge Cup move towards the last sixteen of this season's competition with ten of the Second Round ties contested. The match between Bamber Bridge and Prescot Cables fell victim to the weather and will now take place next midweek along with the remaining five other ties with all six matches featuring First Division teams attempting to turn over Premier Division opposition.

Having been thoroughly beaten 8-2 the previous Tuesday at Burscough the last place managerless Kendal Town wanted to be visiting this week in the League Cup was Burscough again. Neil Robinson, who put the Lake District side to the sword in the previous week's encounter with four of his team's goals, started off in the same vein putting the "Linnets" ahead in the 13th minute but became the villain of the piece when dismissed in the 51st minute four minutes after Kendal had equalised. The visitors took full advantage of their opponents being down to ten men to record, given the previous week's score line, an unlikely 4-1 victory.

Indeed, there were a plethora of 4-1 wins with North Ferriby United taking revenge over Bradford Park Avenue on Monday for an FA Trophy knock out and Marine seeing off another First Division side in Skelmersdale United by the same score. Goole AFC, however, hit back for the lower tier to win 4-1 at Frickley Athletic with the latest UniBond League scoring sensation Andy Parton hitting a double. Although Parton had failed to score in nineteen Football League games in his time at Scunthorpe United his brace against Athletic took his tally since joining Goole at the end of October following his release from Glanford Park to an impressive nine in six games. The trend for 4-1 wins continued on Wednesday in the all First Division clash at Harrogate Railway Athletic although the home side required extra-time before managing to subdue lowly Wakefield FC. Another tie to go to extra-time was the Premier Division clash between 2005 Finalists Whitby Town and Ossett Town with the former taking the game in to penalties with a late, late equaliser which proved to be the winner as Whitby came out on top 5-4 in the shoot out. The 2006 beaten Finalists Stocksbridge PS went out at the hands of Briig Town whom they had led until the 86th minute by which time the "Steels" were down to nine men having had Mick Goddard, the scorer of their goal, sent off in the 75th minute for a second yellow whilst Steve Hawes shown a straight red in the 80th minute. Elsewhere Leek Town who can't find the net in the league hit six at Eastwood Town and were joined in the last sixteen by Woodley Sports and Fleetwood Town who knocked out Warrington Town and Mossley respectively.

Buxton Set Club Record

Buxton's 9-0 win over Blackwell MW in Wednesday evening's Derbyshire Senior Cup tie saw a club post-war record set when no fewer than eight different players featured on the goalsheet. Rob Ward, Mark Reed, Wes Milnes, Kyle Nix, Alvyn Riley and all three substitutes, Zach Law, Jordan Hall and Paul Walker found the net with Ward the only one to bag a brace.

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