Skem

Skelmersdale United  2  Congleton Town  1

North West Counties League – Premier Division

I was going to use the word ‘distrust’ when it comes to clubs declaring dates as to when they are going to be moving into new stadiums.

But, on reflection, it’s probably too strong a word, because I don’t believe any clubs sets out to deceive anyone, I just think sometimes they either don’t know, or they are simply over optimistic.

The word I perhaps was looking for was ‘sceptical’, and that’s probably due to the scale and complexity of what is being undertaken. I mean, to sit down with an artist’s impression in August 2019, and then say “we’ll be in for August 2020”, is hugely reliant on an awful lot of things going to plan, which if course, they don’t.

Take York City as the latest example, 2018-19 was to be the last season at Bootham Crescent, we had commemorative programme covers, we had farewell events planned, and then guess what happens? We are now about to enter February in the 2019-20 season and games are still being played round the corner from the Minster. Apparently test events are about to happen and the club hope to be in the new ground at Monks Cross sometime in the next four weeks!

So, I’m on the phone to my mate Dave, and my mate Dave is a bit like me in the sense that he isn’t great bedfellows with the festive season. But to counter that he tries to plan a few trips out to the football, however, Boxing Day was troubling him. As it stood, he couldn’t find a new ground to go to anywhere in the UK on the 26^th, so instead he was looking at doubling up Cammell Laird with Connahs Quay Nomads.

Then he hears on the grapevine, that Skelmersdale United, who to be fair have been pretty quiet about their new home, were making noises about the fact that they thought they might move into the JMO Sports Park for the derby game with Burscough on the day in question.

That conversation with Dave happened around October time, and my words to the Stone resident formerly of Addlestone were, “Don’t hold your breath, we all know what happens in these situations, Easter at best…….”

Dave agreed, we didn’t discuss it again.

Then, all of a sudden, on the Kempster forum, someone connected to Skem announces that it is going to happen, on Boxing Day, subject to the North West Counties League approving the venue, which they did.

Fair play to Skem, but then they were quite sensible in that they didn’t keep shouting from the rooftops about what they were going to do and when, so in that sense they didn’t set themselves up for a fall. Hucknall Town, take note…….

I had a look at the fixtures myself and spotted a couple of midweeks in January and February, and of course with the JMO having an artificial pitch, it was indeed a ‘banker’, so other than snowfall, it was a dead cert.

I’d not actually got Skelmersdale United v Congleton Town as my first choice game today. I was in an all day meeting at Elland Road in Leeds and my Plan A was to be Dunston v South Shields. That went tits up due to the rain in the afternoon, so with my other mate Steve (I only have two mates) going to Skem, it was an obvious choice to simply head across the M62 and meet up with him.

The journey wasn’t the easiest. Leaving Elland Road at 4.30pm and trying to get onto the M62 wasn’t the best of runs, but thanks to the North Manchester area being more helpful than normal and the East Lancs Road also playing ball, I was pulling up into the vast car park at the ground at 6.45pm, in very good time for the 8pm kick off.

Skelmersdale is a town sitting on the M58, with a population of just under 40,000. It was designated as a new town in 1961 so consequently it has an awful lot of roundabouts. Over the years it has become something of a Merseyside overspill, but from a footballing perspective the clubs history has been far from dull.

Traditionally playing out of White Moss Park, the clubs halcyon days came in the late sixties and early seventies. They made a first trip to Wembley in 1967 to play Enfield in the FA Amateur Cup Final. They drew 0-0 in front of 75,000, only to lose the replay at Maine Road 3-0. They had two FA Cup First Round Proper appearances in the period, losing to Scunthorpe United and Chesterfield, and then they also reached Wembley again in 1971, this time beating Dagenham 4-1.

Promotion to the Northern Premier League came, another First Round Proper tie, this time against Tranmere Rovers boosted the coffers, and things were looking up for the club. But, by 1976 the club were in decline, they dropped backed into the Lancashire Combination, and ultimately the North West Counties League.

The club left their home in 2002, and eventually moved to a new purpose built stadium in the town. The Westgate Interactive Stadium as it was known, was the clubs home when they eventually won promotion back to the Northern Premier League in 2006.

I’m not sure what the record is for the number of times a club has appeared in the Play-Off’s and NOT won them, but Skem must be right up with the best. They lost in four successive seasons, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

2012-13 was to be the pivotal season though, under long serving Tommy Lawson they won the league and found themselves in the Premier Division. The club had two top seven finishes in the top flight, before finishing bottom in the 2016-17 season. They had two campaigns in the First Division, both were a struggle and they now find themselves back in the NWCL.

In the 2016-17 season, the club were unable to secure a new lease on their stadium, so with the clubs very existence under threat, they managed to agree a ground share with Prescot Cables. Thankfully, the JMO Sports Park, which was already in existence, was to ultimately prove to be the clubs salvation, subject to getting it fit for Step 5 football.

I never went to White Moss Park, but I did go to the Westgate (or Windy Corner as it became known). It was in the 2004-05 season and I saw them draw 1-1 with Trafford. I can remember the journey up was a nightmare because England were playing Wales at Old Trafford, and the M6 became a car park! Anyway, I remember Skem had a player called Stuart Rudd at the time, and he was simply a goal machine. I think he ended up scoring over 200 goals for the club in a relatively short space of time.

To be fair to Skem, they’ve done a very good job with the JMO. I’ll admit to expecting to be somewhat underwhelmed by what sounded like cage football at a sports centre, but my expectations were without doubt exceeded.

Yes, it is a sports centre, with numerous pitches, and that will never change, but what they have done is tried to turn the pitch that Skem use into a football ground. The clubhouse and changing rooms sit elevated behind the goal, while on the side to the right they’ve created stepped terracing, put in an elevated Atcost and erected a smaller area of cover. The two other sides are hard standing, with only the clubhouse end out of bounds, although technically it isn’t because you can stand outside the building a watch through the fence.

It wasn’t a pleasant night weather wise, it was windy, we had heavy showers and it was cold, but 161 braved it (crowds have been well over 200 so far). The home support was quite vociferous, as it always was wherever they played, and they were treated to some last minute drama that got them the three points.

Dan Cope gave the visitors the lead on the stroke of half time with a penalty, but Emini Adegbenro scored the equaliser in the 69^th minute. The game looked to be heading for a draw until the last minute when Gabriel Ellis found the net, and that was the cue for some joyous celebrations with the young Skem fans who were stood in the shelter nearest the end where the goal was scored.

Skem are on the rise, they are back home, and lets hope after all of the turbulence, the club can finally gain some stability. Oh, and their timing was impeccable!