By Liam Price
Another week and another tough-looking midweek assignment for the Dabbers on Tuesday, with a trip to 2nd place Vauxhall Motors.
Motors Motoring
It’d be fair to call Vauxhall the surprise package of the NPL West so far. From 16th last season and the third most goals conceded in the division, they are 2nd in the current league only on goal difference behind Widnes but with a game in hand on them. That’s this game, so what an incentive for them if they avoid defeat.
They come into this one on the back of 4 straight wins in all competitions, scoring 3 goals in each of those games. Those wins were against City of Liverpool, Wythenshawe Town and Hanley in the league, and a 3-1 win away at Altrincham in the Cheshire Senior Cup. Take it further back and they’ve only lost 1 of their last 10 games in 90 minutes.
Vauxhall are the top scorers in the division with 25. One point though is their home form has lacked behind their away form, 3 wins and 2 losses at the VanEupen Arena compared with 5 wins and 1 loss away.
Last Time We Met
After the home fixture was played at Leek while our artificial pitch was finished, we travelled to Ellesmere Port in December and were beaten 3-1. Highlights below.
Players to Watch
3 of the Dabbers players in our squad that day are all now Vauxhall players. Paddy Kay, Jake Kirby-Reed and Connor Rankin. They are all regulars in their team; Rankin has 5 goals in 13 games. The headline catching signing they made was Josh Quarless, a strong scorer for City of Liverpool who is showing signs of continuing that here.
Their top scorers though are both on 7. Nick Rushton edges it on goals per game, 7 in 11 for him a superb start to the season. The other (with 7 in 15) is the evergreen Kevin Ellison, who at 45 years young is already having his best goalscoring season since the 2018-19 campaign when he was at Morecambe in League 2.
Match Information
Tickets on the gate are £10 for adults, £5 for concessions and £2 for under 16s. The A51 and M53 is the quickest route on the road, around a 50 minute drive from Nantwich to The VanEupen Arena (CH66 1NJ).