Looking over Boxing Day games this century the fixture planners appear to give us more festive home ties. This means we do not have to venture too far having indulged on Turkey and chocolates.

So, what is in store this Boxing Day. Nantwich venture down the A51 arriving as the League Leaders with an impressive record of 6 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats on the road. Impressive victories include Hyde, Scarborough, while their only defeats came in the same week at Witton and South Shields.

They will therefore arrive in a good frame of mind looking to increase their lead at the top. We, however, will be looking for a good home win to build on our last home game with Hednesford, and to hopefully see our fortunes chance as we enter the new year. You often find that holiday fixtures can throw up strange results, so let us see if we can get one over the side in first place.

Both goalkeepers in the game will be loanees as Nantwich have extended the loan deal of Crewe Alexandra goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen for a further month. They also include in their squad, Callum Saunders, the son of Dean Saunders who was unable to shine for us in pre-season.

Being a holiday fixture, we are hopeful of a big attendance, building on the 600+ for the Hednesford game. The gate will be swelled by a strong contingent from Nantwich, so we need our fans out in force to again use the new Shed End as the 12th man. Obviously due to travel issues on Boxing Day the fixture planners try to give out local derby games, but this was not the case in the mid-seventies. Apart from the other local holiday games we were paired with Wigan for our Boxing Day and New Years day fixtures. One year the away game at Wigan on Boxing Day and the home game on New Years Day saw both games attract over 6000 fans. Oh, for a repeat of that.

As we almost always play a game on Boxing Day, my feature of games played on this date this century is rather larger than normal.

Games played on 26th December this century

2000       Burton Albion    A             0-0          Southern League

2001       Postponed

2002       Halesowen         H             4-2          Southern League

2003       Hednesford        H             1-1          Southern League             

2004       Altrincham          H             0-1          Conference North

2005       Worcester           H             1-1          Conference North

2006       Kidderminster   H             1-2          Conference

2007       Burton Albion    H             0-3          Conference

2008       Telford                 H             1-3          Conference North

2009       Telford                 A             1-2          Conference North

2010       No game

2011       Nantwich             A             0-2          Northern Premier League

2012       Hednesford        H             0-1          Northern Premier League

2013       Nantwich             A             1-4          Northern Premier League

2014       Chasetown         A             2-0          Northern Prem Div 1 South

2015       Chasetown         H             2-1          Northern Prem Div 1 South

2016       Hednesford        H             2-1          Northern Premier League

2017       Stourbridge        H             1-0          Northern Premier League