MATCH PREVIEW: Wire on fire

It has been a very strange season for Warrington Town and their supporters.  In recent weeks, they have been producing the results that the majority of Northern Premier League followers expected of them from the outset.

But they made a poor start on their return to the Premier Division after relegation, collecting just six points from nine games.  Since then, they have amassed an impressive eighteen points from their seven most recent matches and are now challenging at the right end of the table.

Yet in the midst of their six victories, they crashed to a quite remarkable 8-0 defeat at Hebburn Town.

Reds and Town became regular opponents during the nineties, playing each other fourteen times, over seven campaigns, before renewing the rivalry in 2016 for three seasons.   

We have played each other on twenty occasions in the league, with the balance of power with Town – they have recorded seven victories in the series compared to the five successes Reds have managed.  There was also a meeting in the FA Cup during the ’16-17 season, which resulted in a Workington victory.

Predicting how Saturday’s Premier Division encounter will go is almost impossible with both Reds and Town showing regular spells of inconsistency.

The respective managers, Billy Barr and Paul Carden, have been in the game long enough to know every team has an ‘off day’ now and then, although form suggests Town go into the fixture as favourites.

But the pitch will be far from ideal, once again, with heavy rain earlier in the week followed by several nights of frost.  The ground staff did manage to get the pitch rolled but it will be more ‘mud-bath’ conditions than ‘good to firm!

We have been operating at different levels in recent seasons following our relegation from the Premier Division in 2019.  Town were regular play-off contenders and eventually got promoted to Step 2, spending two seasons at the highest level in their history.

Reds were below strength in the disappointing home defeat to Guiseley but, hopefully, the manager will have a full squad to select from.

Town go into the fixture in 8^th position with 24 points from their sixteen games, Reds are still bottom of the table with 13 points to their credit from seventeen matches completed.  

Kick-off: 3pm