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News Archive

1st December 2007
Review Of The Week

WITTON ALBION maintained their 100% home record and a seven point lead at the top of the Premier Division when they beat next to bottom NORTH FERRIBY UNITED thanks to a hat-trick from Adam Warlow. Nearest challengers are FLEETWOOD TOWN who condemned fifth place GUISELEY to a third successive defeat and have two games in hand on Albion. Another top five side to slip to a third defeat on the bounce were GATESHEAD who lost at home to third place MARINE. Closing up on Gateshead and Guiseley are BUXTON who, after a slow start, have won six and drawn two of their last eight following their 2-1 win over WORKSOP TOWN. At the opposite end LEEK TOWN, still looking for a home win, made it three successive wins on their travels when they edged out LINCOLN UNITED in a seven goal affair that saw the home side fall from 14th to 18th place whilst a stoppage time equaliser for ASHTON UNITED prevented third bottom KENDAL TOWN closing the gap on them in 17th.

First Division North leaders CURZON ASHTON kept their unbeaten away record with a 3-1 success at play-off hopefuls OSSETT ALBION but BRADFORD PARK AVENUE remain hard on their heels after a seventh successive three pointer with their latest victims being GARFORTH TOWN who, along with Albion, dropped out of the play-off slots. Moving in to the play-off zone with a 4-0 win at BRIDLINGTON TOWN are NEWCASTLE BLUE STAR but BAMBER BRIDGE, 4-1 winners against neighbours CHORLEY, are a danger to all with their games in hand in third. After suffering their third successive defeat in midweek against MOSSLEY who won again on Saturday, FC UNITED of MANCHESTER got their show back on the road with a narrow 2-1 victory over ROSSENDALE UNITED who were suffering a fourth straight defeat. At the bottom RADCLIFFE BOROUGH kept their first clean sheet but are still looking for a first victory after a goalless draw at LANCASTER CITY. The clash of the day in the South section saw CAMMELL LAIRD lose their 100% home record with visitors RETFORD UNITED going five points clear of Lairds at the top with a game in hand. Third place GOOLE lost for the first time in eleven when going down 3-1 at STOCKSBRIDGE but fourth spot GRANTHAM TOWN returned to winning ways after three reverses with a 5-1 win over GRESLEY ROVERS but only two points separates them from Rovers who drop to eighth as a result of their defeat. After scoring eleven in their last two league games COLWYN BAY lost 3-0 at NANTWICH TOWN whilst SPALDING UNITED who had conceded ten in their last two outings drew 1-1 at QUORN to lift themselves off bottom spot for the first time this season. Replacing them are BRIGG TOWN who have now lost six on the trot after their reverse at home to KIDSGROVE ATHLETIC who were winning for the first time in ten. CARLTON TOWN kept their first clean sheet of the season in a 5-0 win at WARRINGTON TOWN for whom it was a fourth straight defeat.

Witton Sign England Youth International

Witton Albion strengthened their title chasing hand on Friday when manager Jim Vince snapped up 24 years old Neil Wood following his release from Oldham Athletic. The midfielder spent five years on contract at Manchester United and earned England Youth honours. Although he never made the Old Trafford first team he did play in the Football League on loan with Peterborough United and Burnley before signing for Coventry City, Blackpool and most recently Oldham.

FA Trophy Draw Pits UniBond Against Blue Square National

The draw for the First Round Proper of the FA Trophy produced either a very good or very bad draw depending on which way it is viewed for the six surviving UniBond clubs with all of them drawn against Blue Square National opposition.

First Division North BAMBER BRIDGE will be considered very much the minnows when they entertain Rushden & Diamonds who were members of the Football League as recently as 2005/6 season whilst First Division South sides COLWYN BAY and RETFORD UNITED will also be giving away around sixty places in the Pyramid pecking order when they take on high flying Burton Albion and Histon respectively. With Burton expected to take a couple of hundred supporters to the game Colwyn Bay are expecting a crowd approaching 800 for the first visit of a Blue Square National side since Hednesford Town in 1998/99.

Of the three Premier Division sides left in GUISELEY have landed a plum draw at home to Kidderminster Harriers who were appearing in their fourth FA Trophy Final in the first ever competitive game at the new Wembley Stadium last May when they lost to Stevenage Borough after being two up at the interval. GATESHEAD are also at home to former UniBond colleagues Farsley Celtic whilst OSSETT TOWN complete the line up after their midweek replay success against Rushall Olympic with a trip to Stafford Rangers who are struggling at the wrong end of the non-league game's top Division. Ties to be played on Saturday 15th December.

UniBond clubs have already won £82,500 in this season's competition against a total last season of £61,300 and it is a similar story in the FA Cup going in to tomorrow's televised 2nd Round Proper encounter between Harrogate Railway Athletic and Mansfield Town. This time round UniBond clubs have won £164,750 in FA Cup prize money against £126,250 in the previous campaign. Even allowing for the fact that there are 57 member clubs this season against only 46 last term it is still a better performance with clubs averaging £4337 in FA prize money this season against £4077 in 2006/7 with hopefully more to come.

Quorn Turn To Former Shepshed Boss

Quorn have appointed former Shepshed Dynamo boss Peter McGurk as their new manager to take over from Marcus Law who recently resigned. Despite losing some key players following the departure of Law, Quorn made good progress under the temporary stewardship of skipper Robert Betts who guided the club to two wins in his three games in charge as caretaker.

Evans Hits Fifth Hat-Trick Of Season

Skelmersdale United hot shot Tony Evans slotted home his fifth hat-trick of the campaign on Tuesday evening as the First Division North side won a County Cup tie at Formby by four goals to one. His first treble came at the end of September in a 5-0 League Challenge Cup win over Lancaster City followed a week later by all three goals in his side's win over FC United of Manchester. He gave defences a month off in October before showing Lancaster he hadn't finished with them by hitting another treble against the Giant Axe outfit in a league fixture. He then bagged three against Chorley in another 5-0 victory before this week's volley against Formby.

Hednesford Start Reserve Team

Hednesford Town this week announced they are to start a new Reserve team with the newly formed side playing friendlies around once a fortnight. Youth team boss Nigel Birch will step up to the role of Reserve Team manager leaving a vacancy for a Youth Team coach that will be advertised.

UniBond "Club Of The Month" Awards

The UniBond "Club of the Month" awards for November have gone to FLEETWOOD TOWN, BRADFORD PARK AVENUE and RETFORD UNITED respectively. Fleetwood took the top tier prize with five wins and a draw in their seven outings. The draw and only defeat came, ironically, in the FA Trophy at the hands of Retford who took the First Division South accolade posting four other victories on top of their win and draw against Fleetwood scoring seventeen goals and conceding only three in the process. The First Division North award went the way of Bradford Park Avenue who had a 100% record in their seven fixtures. Twelve different clubs have now won the awards this season in the four months to date.

UniBond "Fair Play" Awards

November's UniBond "Fair Play" awards have been captured by FLEETWOOD TOWN (who thus doubled up on their Club of the Month prize), ROSSENDALE UNITED and ALSAGER TOWN. All the three winners were scooping the award for the first time this season. In the race for the three £1,000 Divisional first prizes for the season overall to be decided next April Witton Albion are still way ahead in the top tier proving once again that winning can be achieved in conjunction with Fair Play. Rossendale's November performance sees them move in to second place in the season to date tables for the First Division North whilst Warrington Town, Quorn and Nantwich Town are very closely matched in the South section where championship chasing Retford United are the opposite of Witton in the top tier as they are a long way bottom of the Fair Play table.

Street Makes It Fourteen

Ian Street became the UniBond League's fourteenth managerial casualty of the season when he parted company with Warrington Town this week. He said: "Recent weeks have been very difficult after we picked up injuries and a few other players lost form but I intend staying in football and any interested clubs are welcome to contact me". Taking over from Street is Paul Moore who did a quick exit from Premier Division Leek Town to take charge of his home town team.

Moore, who was resigning from Leek for the second time in seven months, said: "Living locally I have been fully aware of the ambition being shown by the new Board at Warrington and whilst I have enjoyed my time at Leek and at the higher level I am confident Warrington have the ambition to move forward. It is a great challenge and one that really excites me. A town the size of Warrington deserves a successful football club and I am confident, with the right level of support, we can achieve our dreams". He had saved Leek from relegation last season but left during the summer when Leek's financial future was uncertain only to return a few weeks in to the current campaign when his replacement Paul Ogden stood down for health reasons. Taking over in a caretaker capacity is player/assistant manager Wayne Johnson who will be helped by former Leek manager Mark Cartwright.

Wigglesworth Steps Down At Ossett

Ossett Albion Chairman Neville Wigglesworth had stepped down after 29 years in the post. He took over in March 1979 when the club was in Division Two of the old Yorkshire League and under his stewardship the club reached their present UniBond League status in 2003. He said: "For some time I have been of the opinion that I have taken the club as far as I am able but wanted to ensure a suitable successor was in place to take the club forward". Taking over is Tony Stott who has been involved with the club for a number of years and has been recently dealing with the ground improvements at Dimple Wells.

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