First game of the new season

Sunday 24th August, a full new bright strip thanks to our main Sponsors, Jo & Allan Brown of the Lord Combermere.

A bright , sunny and warm day as we arrive at the Cumberland Sports Ground, sited alongside the main line into and out of Crewe Station.

The pitch here is magnificent. Lush, cut well, not a bare patch. Beautifully lined. I give it 10/10 for condition and as a playing surface.

As to our poor miserable pitch at Audlem, that gets 0/10 marks from us. Rusty bent goal posts – I will be ashamed when we host our first match at home on the 27th (Kick Off at 6.45pm!) One day perhaps it will belong to the village and be made such as to be proud of. One can but dream.

Referee Derek Scott here for the day wearing the shortest shorts I have ever seen. Geoff Stretch and James Bebbington, our management team, have the slight luxury of picking from 15 players.

Clock tower of the Crewe Municipal Buildings rings out the hour and off we go. Playing the Rising Sun team, a strong long established team.

Full; of hope and looking good in the new colours, I wonder if we can be proud of them at the end of the season. Sun very warm, air is still. What a contrast to the previous few days. Virgin Train passing by as we begin.

Good cross fired over by Skipper Kev Mort lands just short of Andrew Betteley (a new signing).

Next few minutes are the best play for us. Header by Rising Sun just over the bar. They are a well disciplined team and play good football with each player knowing just here his mates are.

22 minutes to go in this half and we still have to get into their half!! RS much more vociferous than us.
11.34 and they score:
0-1
11.38
0-2! – from a corner.

Jimmy Murphy in goal (another new signing) then pulls off a good brave save at the feet of an attacker. Great cross by Joe Benson who is playing very well in his brightly coloured boots.

Corner to us – fired across and Andrew (Becko) Betteley scores.
1-2.

Jimmy in goal gets hurt and is dizzy for a bit. The magic bottle of water brought into play.
We give away a free kick and bang- they score
11.46 and 1-3.

Ref blows up and off we troop, heads still not down as we are getting better.

Second Half

Glorious sun still and the gnats are very numerous. Game flowing both ways as we begin to get it together. Ref books a RS player – harshly we feel.

Jimmy pulls off another good save. Reaching high to take the ball headed for goal.
12.30 and RS play the first sub.

A very good run and a shot by Sam O'Hara, just saved. Then Jimmy tips a good fierce shot over the bar and gives out a stream of invectives, in a strong northern Irish accent.

Result from the corner:
1- 4 as they score once more.

Geoff plays a sub as Joe Overland trots on replacing Joe Benson, suffering from a nasty rake of studs across his ankle. Joe Overland playing well and full of running. Young legs matters a lot. Another sub for us as Kev Walters comes on for James Bebbington.

Them a stupid soft goal.
1-5. So so soft- like taking toffee off babies.
5 minutes later and 1-6!
2 minutes more and 1-7!
Defence in pieces.
Horror of an ending
Lawrence Wood (New Young Signing) sent on by Geoff and James for Ian Chalker.

In the last minutes a fine dipping shot by Sam O'Hara over the wall from a free kick – but saved.
Full time whistle.

A very poor sad start to the season. Our last meeting with The Rising Sun was a 4-1 defeat. This was worse.
Man of the Match was Joe Benson – he had a very good game. And the opposing manager agreed with this choice.

An aside, as I sat there and reported on the game, I was amazed at the activity all morning of the traffic on the rail line into Crewe. Both passenger and freight. And this on a Sunday.
As Crewe moves evermore to being an even bigger hub for travel to and from the south, it is easy to see just how the price of property hereabouts will rocket. A good time to get in with commuter housing.

Next Game at Home versus Bank Corner is on Wednesday 27th August. KO at 6.45pm.

Ralph Warburton
AFC Chairman

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.