Tuesday night we entertain Marine for a pace in the last 8 of this seasons Integro Northern Premier League Cup. Apart from George Machin’s heroics to win the Cheshire League Cup in 1968, and Bob Mountain’s wondergoal at Barnet to win the Bob Lord Trophy in 1986, Stafford Rangers do not do League Cups.

If you look back at recent Stafford Rangers League Cup history, it does not make very good reading. We have witnessed defeats to sides like Rocester and Bloxwich. In fact, last season’s cup run was one of our best, yet we needed penalties to beat Sutton Coldfield and Alvechurch before bowing out to Coalville. I think the reason that League Cup’s do not feature highly in a club’s interest is summed up by Coalville having to travel midweek to South Shields in a latter round. If we beat Marine then we are getting closer to a potential midweek journey to Scarborough, Marske or Morpeth. Looking back over the current century our wins in the various League Cup competitions (remember the Carthium Cup) are few and far between. Since 2001 we have won only 6 games, Alfreton, Northwich, Romulus, Tividale, Sutton Coldfield and Alvechurch, with 3 of those wins coming with penalty shootouts. We have lost 14 league cup ties, so history shows we may not be looking forward to this next game.

With our history in League Cups, the question is, how serious does Steve Burr look at the game. As a manager he will want to win. But, at what cost. Does he consider the potential financial loss of a long midweek fixture in the next round, or does he keep the current side to build confidence, or does he give valuable playing time to the whole of his squad. Quite a quandary.

Marine visit us as one of the few teams below us in the League lying 20th with 15 points from 18 games. On their travels they have won only once at Lancaster and drawn at Witton and Workington. However, they have had good away cup wins at Scarborough, Brackley and a narrow away defeat at High Flying Salford. Therefore, this game cannot be taken too lightly especially as we need to avenge our 1-0 defeat earlier this season at Rosset Park to a 90th minute penalty, having seen Pezza miss a penalty for us earlier.

Tuesday Nights in December always tend to be cold but come on down to Marston Road and who knows you may go home with a warm glow, and a victory under our belts.

Games played on this date this century (4th December)

2004 Southport H 1-1 Conference North
2012 Buxton H 2-2 Northern Premier League

Stafford Rangers are looking for talented, committed and ambitious local footballers currently in Year 10 & Year 11 who wish to join a semi-professional academy in the Evo-Stik League where they will #Study, #Train and #Play full time after leaving school in 2019 (Current year 11 students) and 2020 (Current year 10 students)

Our students study for a BTEC in Sport qualification (Level 3), train every day with an UEFA qualified coach and play in the NPL Football Academy League with opportunities to play in the FA Youth Cup.

Starting in September 2019, the Stafford Rangers ‘Education and Football Academy’ is an alternative to college and is ideal for any 16/17 year old who wishes to gain a great education and develop as a footballer at the same time.

TRIALS are taking place in December:-

DATE & TIME: Friday 14th December, 4:30pm – 6pm
VENUE: Rowley Park Sports Stadium, Averill Road, Stafford, ST17 9XX (3G pitch)

If you would like to attend, please register your details HERE

At the Stafford Rangers Academy you will study, train and play full time.

STUDY:
– Alternative to college
– BTEC in Sport Level 3 (Diploma & Extended Diploma)
– 168 UCAS points (Extended Diploma) & 112 UCAS points (Diploma) available
– Two year programme
– Study in the classroom with your team mates
– Take the next step to UK university, US scholarship or employment/apprenticeship

TRAIN:
– Experienced & UEFA qualified coaches
– Train three/four times a week
– Improve technical ability and fitness on a daily basis
– Opportunities to train with the first team

PLAY:
– In the NPL Football Academy League
– Opportunities to play in the FA Youth Cup
– Games played at Evo-Stik League stadiums
– Opportunities to progress to the first team
– Opportunities to play for the inter-league team against
professional clubs (https://youtu.be/599ijooPbrg)

EXTRAS:
– All matches are filmed, analysed and shown in a weekly highlights package online with our video partners FilmMyMatch (https://youtu.be/3T_q_C28oQg)
– Opportunities to take part in online challenges against other students (https://youtu.be/SQfRyXeSYUc)
– Opportunities to study, play and coach in the USA by gaining a scholarship
– Progress onto our three-year university degree course (http://nplfa.co.uk/degree/)
Take a look at the NPLFA’s success stories – nplfa.co.uk/graduates – and activate your ambition now by applying at nplfa.co.uk/register

Follow the NPLFA:
facebook.com/NPLFootballAcademy
twitter.com/NPLFA
instagram.com/NPLFA
youtube.com/NPLFA

Since Neil Kitching got us back into the NPL this will be our third meeting at home to Buxton. Sadly, both games to date have seen a 2-1 defeat and last seasons 4-1 defeat. Let’s hope we can turn the corner.

Due to their new artificial pitch not being ready at the start of the season Buxton started the season with 3 away games but as the season has gone on, they have now caught up. If you look at their away league form, they could be a side who sits back and defend for 90 minutes, as they have only won once at Mickleover, back in September, but have drawn 6, at Nantwich, Workington, Bamber Bridge, Farsley, Hednesford and Stalybridge. Their only two away defeats show a dislike of the North East having lost at Whitby and Scarborough. Another feather in their cap is that they won away in the FA Trophy at our FA Cup victors, Kings Lynn.

Having now created a new unbeaten run, okay 2 drawn games, but from acorns mighty oak trees grow, we hope to step up and beat Buxton to avenge our first half defeat at Silverlands earlier this season. Buxton become the first side we have met twice this season so let’s hope we can prevent them being the first side to do the double over us this season. While we have another weeks rest, Buxton will be putting their away form to the test with a visit to Alfreton on Tuesday night in the Derbyshire Cup.

As the cold weather starts to come and the Christmas shopping takes hold, please take a break and pop down to Marston Road this Saturday and cheer the team on to a victory. Remember that this could be the last home league game without the “shed end”, so let’s close a piece of history with a win.

Games played this century on 1^st December

2001       Vauxhall               H             0-3          FA Trophy round 2

2007       Northwich V        H             0-0         Conference

2012       Eastwood             A             2-2          Northern Premier League

Almost to the day,

4/12/12 we drew 2-2 at home to……. Buxton

Recently a suggestion was made that the new Shed End should be named the Jon Downing Stand or similar. A poll was held on an associated Facebook page and many supporters were in favour of this.

The result of this poll was considered by the Board of Directors and a decision was made to approach Jon’s family in this respect.

We can now confirm that the Downing family have been approached and that they would like the Shed End name to remain as it was first intended.

The family have said “We are extremely pleased that the club have honoured Jon’s memory by renaming the Lotus suite the Jon Downing Suite. We are aware that the stand is now being erected and that a number of supporters and companies have contributed to this with both time and money. Whilst we appreciate the wonderful gesture of Jon’s name appearing on the Shed End we feel that Jon would have wanted the credit for this to remain with these people and that the intended original name remain”

Please note that there has been a fixture change, as our intended opponents, Witton Albion are involved in the FA Trophy, and as a fellow Northern Premier League side, we wish them well in their tie at National League North side Leamington. That would normally leave us with a blank Saturday, but the League have done us proud and have rearranged a fixture to now give us a home game. I hope fans have not made any plans thinking we were away as we now have a home fixture with Whitby. The original date for this game was January 12th, and the potential for a bad weather postponement causing Whitby an arduous midweek journey will certainly have gone down well with our East Coast opponents. Whitby were to have made the journey to Stalybridge but for Celtics Trophy involvement, so I think the League have made a very wise decision.

Our visitors appear to have gone against the trend of a reluctance for Northern League sides to join the pyramid. Historically the Northern League sides have shunned promotion into until the rules changed last summer forcing compulsory promotion Back in 1992-93, Whitby Town won the Northern League Championship for the first time in their history but due to circumstances beyond their control, the club were denied promotion to the Northern Premier League. Prior to that Whitby had been in the Northern League since 1926. The club, who were amateurs reached the Amateur Cup final at Wembley in 1965 losing 3-1 to Hendon.
1997 was perhaps their finest year, winning the Northern League and the FA Vase at Wembley. 11,098 witnessed a 3-0 defeat of North Ferriby, refereed by Graham Poll. The following season newly promoted to the Division 1 of the Northern Premier League (Unibond) they won the League with a 7-point margin. Since then, Whitby have established themselves as a Northern Premier League side.

This season sees Whitby in a mid-table position of 13th after 18 games. Looking only at their 9 away league games, they have been successful 3 times, at North Ferriby 1-0, Matlock 3-0 and Workington 2-1. They have drawn 1-1 at Scarborough and 0-0 at Marine. Defeats have been 0-2 at Basford, 1-4 at Nantwich and 2-3 at Grantham, and last Saturday 1-4 at Gainsborough. Their FA Cup run was ended at the first hurdle with a 0-1 away defeat at Northern League side Whitley Bay. They have certainly been given local away ties in the Integro League cup with success at Pickering 2-1 before losing out on penalties at Scarborough. Anyone who has drawn twice this season at Scarborough cannot be taken lightly.

So, on paper, we may have a tricky game, so it is important that you are aware of the change of fixtures and turn up in numbers to cheer Steve’s side on to victory. We need to build on our strong defensive performance at Lancaster and score some goals to reduce our goal difference column. We have a week’s rest prior to this game while Whitby have a county cup tie on Tuesday at home to Grangetown Boys Club. They are a step 7 side from the North Riding Football League, so Whitby, too may have had a week’s rest.

Games played on 24th November this century

2001 Welling Away 2-3 Southern League
2007 Ebbsfleet Away 1-2 Conference
2012 Southport Home 0-4 FA Trophy 1st round