As both ourselves and Witton won our respective FA Cup games on Saturday we now have this home fixture with our Cheshire rivals Witton Albion. The start to their season closely mirrors ours as their first two away games were distance fixtures at South Shields and Whitby. The similarity stays as you look at current league positions. We have identical records of 1 home win, 2 draws and no defeats, and away results of 1 win, no draws and 2 defeats. The only thing to separate us is that our goals scored of 7 is better than Witton’s 5 and “S” comes before “W” in the alphabet. Therefore, this makes for an interesting fixture between the two teams.
People often ask about the name of Witton considering they play in Northwich. History tends to show that the district of Witton, situated in the mid-Cheshire salt town of Northwich, had several different teams using the name ‘Witton’ as a prefix. The name Witton Albion itself can be traced back to a match played on October 26th, 1887 and is thought to be due to a group of Northwich Victoria players, officials and supporters who chose to break away from the Vic’s in protest of the clubs’ decision to become a ‘professional’ side.
Witton Albion claim to be the only non-league football club with its own museum. Built and maintained by volunteers, the museum traces the history of Witton Albion back to the nineteenth century. Famous players, matches and successes are remembered through a series of photographs, memorabilia, old programmes and press cuttings.
A notable Stafford Rangers game played at their old Central Ground was on 4th May 1985 when, in front of a crowd of 1,013, no doubt swelled by the travelling fans, they witnessed a 1-0 win from a Martin Hanchard penalty, and at full time Kevin Mooney was presented with the Northern Premier League Trophy. In 1989 Witton sold their ground to Sainsbury’s and moved to Wincham on the outskirts of the town building a new modern Stadium. One of the first games on the new ground was our visit in a pre-season friendly and our striker Terry Knight scored the first goal at their new ground.
So, get yourself down to Stafford Rangers this Tuesday, for what should be an evenly contested fixture.
Preview report by Phil Bennett
