By Liam Price, photo by Jonathan White
The Dabbers start a run of 3 away league games out of the next 4 with a trip to Kidsgrove on Tuesday night (7.45pm kick-off) after the postponed Saturday game was quickly rearranged.
Let’s Grove
It’s hard to get any sort of read on Kidsgrove’s overall form. Looking through their league results, they have only had the same result back-to-back once, which was consecutive defeats around the turn of November and December. So there have been no standout unbeaten runs but nor have their been any long runs without a win.
Their last 4 results have followed the same inconsistent pattern: WLWD. They thrashed Witton 4-1, lost away at Wythenshawe Town, beat Newcastle 3-1 and drew last time out at Congleton.
Only 2 of their last 7 games have been at home, and it’s the split between their home and away results that goes a long way to explaining the overall inconsistency. At home it’s been 7 wins and 2 draws from 11 games, away just 1 win out of 12. 23 points (H) v 8 (A) is the joint biggest discrepancy between home and away form in the NPL West, along with Newcastle.
Last Time We Met
A superb lob from Callum Saunders helped the Dabbers to a 3-1 win in the reverse fixture in August, with Josh Williams and Alex Panter getting the other goals. Highlights below.
Players to Watch
Natty Stewart has scored 3 goals in his last 2 games for Kidsgrove to mark himself out as the most in form attacker for them at the moment.
Joint managers Tom Pope and Matt Rhead are both still active players; Rhead scored against Newcastle on Boxing Day.
Former Dabbers player and manager Ritchie Sutton is still a part of the Kidsgrove squad and is surely using his leadership qualities for them; and Oli Finney and George Cooper could face Kidsgrove for the first time since leaving for Nantwich.
Match Information
A reminder that Marc Feighery will be leading the Dabbers as Interim Manager for the first time.
This is always one of the more easy away fixtures for Dabbers supporters to get to; half an hour in the car from Nantwich with trains also a good possibility. It’s about a 20/25 minute walk from the station to the stadium and trains running at 26 and 33 past the hour from Crewe. There are trains back post full time, from Kidsgrove to Crewe at 22:10 and 22:45.
Tickets are £10 for adults, £6 for concessions and £4 for 12-16s. U12s are free.