{"id":5927,"date":"2021-04-16T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T10:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/?p=5927"},"modified":"2021-04-16T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T10:00:54","slug":"match-preview-stretford-paddock-fc-vs-north-walkden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/news\/match-preview-stretford-paddock-fc-vs-north-walkden\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Preview: Stretford Paddock FC vs North Walkden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After Okera Simmonds snatched a late point against Manchester Polonia last weekend, Stretford Paddock look for a first victory in the 2020\/21 Rhodes Cup group stages as they host North Walkden this Saturday (2pm KO).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5912\" src=\"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/StretfordPaddock2-2ManchesterPolonia-252-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Okera Simmonds scoring from the spot late on to make it 2-2 against Polonia\" width=\"490\" height=\"327\" \/><\/p>\n<p>North Walkden were part of Lancashire and Cheshire\u2019s AFL Division One this year alongside Stretford Paddock before COVID-19 restrictions drew the competition to a close.<\/p>\n<p>North Walkden sat sixth in the division having only played five matches with the best points per game \u2013 three matches and six points less than Paddock \u2013 and opened their account with a 2-2 draw against Signol Old Boys on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Howson\u2019s side recorded the same score-line as ex-England youth player Okera Simmonds scored a brace in a feisty affair which saw two red cards, one of which was issued to the Paddock manager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was not happy with our own performance,\u201d said a disgruntled Howson, \u201cI thought there are gears and levels to go through for us.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that North Walkden is going to be a tough game. Certainly starting this group with a bit of a baptism of fire.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019ve just got to be equal to it, or better than it. I think the positives to take from this are that Manchester Polonia said on the way out said that we\u2019re one of the best teams we\u2019ve played.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I could take a little bit of solace from that but ultimately I\u2019m not happy taking a draw and I wouldn\u2019t be happy with anything less than a win next week neither.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SPaddockFC\">@SPaddockFC<\/a> on Twitter for live-match updates and subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCOfN8RocOxUmvEBoaBIi18g\">YouTube channel<\/a> for highlights.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gehEy5id27c\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Okera Simmonds snatched a late point against Manchester Polonia last weekend, Stretford Paddock look for a first victory in the 2020\/21 Rhodes Cup group stages as they host North Walkden this Saturday (2pm KO). North Walkden were part of Lancashire and Cheshire\u2019s AFL Division One this year alongside Stretford Paddock before COVID-19 restrictions drew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stretfordpaddockfc.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}