A week later than originally planned, the Dabbers are travelling to Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday (3pm kick-off), part of a big Dabbers double header with our friends at Nantwich CC in action at Lords at the same time (best of luck from everyone at Nantwich Town).
Stubborn Stalybridge
Stalybridge’s record this season is not that remarkable on the surface. They sit 11th in the Northern Premier League with 11 points from 7 games. But underpinning that is a formidable defensive run that puts most in this division to shame. In the 9 games they’ve played this season in all competitions, they have only conceded more than 1 goal once, and that was to league leaders South Shields. But they haven’t scored more than once in a game all season, and they’ve kept 5 clean sheets in 9. So it seems it’s not going to be a high scoring affair on Saturday.
In the league, they are unbeaten in 5 after losing their first 2 games, defeating Bamber Bridge last time out by (you guessed it) 1 goal to nil
Last Time Out
This obstinance from Stalybridge looks like a stark contrast to last season’s meetings with them. The home game was a 3-2 Dabbers win, and the away match was our finest result of the 21/22 season, a 5-1 thrashing in February. Joe Robbins only scored in one game for the Dabbers, and it was a brilliant hat-trick in Greater Manchester, alongside goals from Shaun Miller and Jake Bickerstaff. Highlights from that are available below.
Players to Watch
Former Dabbers favourite Greg Hall will be keeping goal on Saturday and looking to keep that impressive run going. They also have among their ranks the Abadaki brothers, Osebi and Godwin, who both had spells at Nantwich, but both may be out on Saturday through injury. Leading the line for them has been Angolan striker Raul Correia who scored the winner against Bamber Bridge in their last game.
Match Information
Tickets for Bower Fold are available on the gate only, priced at £12 for adults, £8 for concessions and under 12s go free.