MATCH PREVIEW: 42 games to go
Reds will launch their forty-two match 2026-27 Northern Premier League campaign at Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday, having concluded a solid preseason with a narrow win at Clitheroe last week.
Trinity have actually played more warm-up games than Reds, but failed to win their three home matches yet didn’t lose any of the four they played away.
But preseason counts for nothing, in terms of results, and Saturday will be the only focus for Russ Wilcox and Billy Barr.
It is a repeat of the opening weekend of the ’84-85 season, when Reds started with a 3-2 defeat at the Northolme.
Trinity have recruited well in the summer, hoping to improve on last season’s 7th position finish. They finished with 59 points (from 16 wins and 11 draws) with four of those points obtained at our expense.
They were comfortable 2-1 winners at Borough Park but we gave a very good account of ourselves in the return, a match which ended in a 3-3 draw.
It will be Reds’ twenty-seventh visit to the Kal Group Stadium, a venue which hasn’t proved a happy hunting ground since our maiden appearance there, forty-nine years ago. We last won a NPL fixture in Lincolnshire during the 1987-88 season but did record two victories, more recently, in Conference North meetings.
Billy Barr will name the same squad that travelled to Lancashire last week with Brad Carroll and Danny Eccles the notable absentees.
Kick-off: 3pm
Mileage: 186
Postcode: DN21 2QW
