By Liam Price, photo by Staci Hocknell
It’s a first new league ground of the season for the Dabbers as we head down the M6 to face Darlaston on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Don’t Worry Darl-ing
It’s been a whirlwind couple of seasons for Darlaston. In 2023/24 they reached the modern Northern Premier League pyramid for the first time after beating Lichfield City in the play-offs. Then, after just one season in the NPL Midlands where they finished 7th, they found themselves shifted sideways to the NPL West.
They got the short end of the stick to some extent as they surely have the longest collective travel time of any club in the division. Being based in the Walsall area that’s numerous lengthy trips up the M6 to Liverpool and Manchester across the season.
The adjustment to another new league has proved a bit difficult so far. They are second bottom of the NPL West with 12 points and have scored fewer goals than anyone else, 13 in 15 games.
Despite this, results over the past month or so do contain a couple of eye-catching outcomes. They beat Atherton 2-0 and drew 1-1 away at runaway leaders Lower Breck in October. Their last result was a 4-1 loss at Runcorn last weekend.
They’ll be wanting to improve the home form especially, with 1 win, 1 draw and 5 defeats from their 7 games at the Paycare Stadium so far.
Darlaston Town can trace their history back to 1874, making them one of the oldest non-league clubs in the country. The original form of the club unfortunately folded in 2013, but a year later the phoenix club Darlaston Town (1874) restored the club to the town and they haven’t looked back. For complicated reasons, just the first team are now known again as just Darlaston Town.
Players to Watch
Jake Collins is their top scorer in the league on 4, a third of their total goals tally.
To solve their goalscoring issues they have turned to a club favourite who has returned to Darlaston this week. Kieran Cook helped them secure promotion to the NPL Midlands in 2024 and scored 15 for them in that league last season.
Goalkeeper Stan Amos and Roman Allen from Shifnal have been 2 more recent additions.
Match Information
The trip is simple enough by car, an hour south rather than north the big difference. Just head down the M6 until you reach the A454 and look for Bentley Road North. The postcode is WS2 0EA.
Tickets are available with cash or card at £10 for adults, £8 for concessions and £4 for U18s.