Stretford Paddock are in desperate need of a win – has this Saturday’s fixture against the side sitting bottom of the league come at the perfect time? This weekend, Paddock host Ashton Town Reserves, a side struggling this season in League 2 of the Cheshire League. With both sides still with a glimmer of hope of achieving their own specific goals this season, Saturday’s match is set up to be a cracker.
Situational Preview
Stretford Paddock, after a disappointing loss to Bollington Town, remain in 7th position – just within the top half of the table. The club are now 11 points off 3rd, which is where they will need to finish to achieve promotion. With 6 teams all fighting for 2 promotion places, it does seem less and less likely that Paddock will be one of those 2 teams come the end of the season.
Having said that, Paddock have a handful of games in hand on different teams above them. However, if Paddock are going to take advantage of their games in hand, they need to start winning, and start doing it soon.
A win for Paddock would not see them move any higher than 7th place but could put them level on points with Haydock FC, with a game less played.
Ashton Town Reserves currently sit 20 points below Paddock, in bottom spot. A win for them this weekend would certainly give their survival hopes a boost. Hartford, who sit in 11th, are only 8 points ahead of Ashton Town.
Opponent Watch
We’ve already touched on it, but Ashton Town Reserves are not having the best of seasons. Having finished 9th last season, the club would have been hopeful of pushing on for a promotion challenge this season. With a record of 3 wins, zero draws and 17 losses, their hopes for possible promotion have become hopes of survival.
Their last victory came back in October of last year where they hammered 4 goals past Pilkington U23s. Since then, they have failed to amount any points and have conceded a total of 28 goals.
You’d think this would be an easy game for Paddock, and yes, you’d expect the home side to take all three points however, Ashton Town will be licking their lips at the opportunity to face a Paddock side with only 1 win in their last 6 league games.
Ashton Town also have a danger man which Paddock’s defence must keep quiet. Forward, Robert Ablewhite has bagged 10 goals this season in only 6 appearances. Should he feature tomorrow against Paddock, we should expect nothing less than an exciting game of football.
Team News
Ronaldo Brown is back available for selection this weekend and we expect to see him in the match day squad. Whether he finds himself in the starting 11 or not is a different question.
Over the past 2 weekends, Joao De Andrade and Ryan Katumba have been very busy up top – doing almost everything right other than finding the back of the net. We have also seen impressive performances out wide from Mikey Burke and Omar Sinclair.
After picking up an injury last Saturday against Bollington Town, Martin Flanagan will be out this weekend. The only goal in Paddock’s 1-0 loss was scored in controversial fashion. The ball was slotted into an empty net whilst Paddock’s keeper was down injured. The goal stood and Flanagan coundn’t continue.
Despite keeping a clean sheet, it is unlikely that James Oatt will keep his place in goal. An opportunity arises however for Victor Gimenez to claim himself a spot in the first team. It’s likely that Paddock’s expert shot stopper will be back between the sticks tomorrow.
🚨𝗙𝗜𝗫𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦🚨
With last week not going to plan, we hope to turn it around this week as we welcome 𝗔𝘀𝗵𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀.
📅 Sat 25 Mar
⏲️ 2:00PM
📍 Manchester Enterprise Academy, M22 9RH
🏆 @CheshireFL
🎫 FREE#UpThePaddock pic.twitter.com/nkOegrPYUl— Stretford Paddock FC (@SPaddockFC) March 24, 2023
