THE 1874 COLUMN - Adifferent perspective, by Matt Waters

WITH the club being one of the many teams fighting for promotion this season, every month becomes difficult in its own right, however November poses to be one of the hardest we will face this season.

After starting it in superb style by dismantling Litherland REMYCA 9-0 we unfortunately fell short last week against an excellent footballing side in Longridge Town, who will, like us, be hoping to be in the promotion places come the end of the season.

The game against Longridge was easily our toughest test of the season so far, including our games versus BetVictor Premier opposition Whitby Town and Witton Albion.

Town played comfortably out from the back, putting us under immediate pressure when we got the opportunity to attack and managed to take all three points after being a goal down.

Looking ahead to our next league game it doesn’t get any easier. As we’ve seen so far this season, teams are taking points and getting wins off each other without one club pulling away just get.

This weekend it doesn’t get much tougher as we make the trip over to Merseyside to play fourth placed Bootle in another crucial match between teams fighting for promotion.

Last time we visited the Berry Street Garage Stadium, the game ended in a 2-0 win for the hosts in March having beaten them 2-1 in the home game with goals from Taylor Kennerley and Scott McGowan showing the sides are, like Longridge, evenly matched.

At the weekend we had no game as our Macron Cup tie versus Irlam was postponed while this weekend’s opposition Bootle lost in a shock 2-0 defeat to Litherland REMCYA, who we previously beat 9-0 earlier in the month which shows at this level, nothing is certain in football.

Soon after Saturday we are on the road again, this time going to another team who have started the season extremely well in Whitchurch Alport. With them picking up some excellent wins, they are currently in third place. Only two points separate us in first and Bootle in fourth, showing it’s all to play for heading into the crucial winter months.

Two areas we have been extremely successful in so far this season is consistently scoring and also keeping other sides out.

We are the top scoring side in the league with an excellent record of 37 goals in 12 games averaging over three goals a game.

Not only this but we have the joint best defence, only conceding 13 goals showing the reward for playing some excellent football in the early part of the season.