Wooders

Garswood United   0   Lostock Gralam   1 

Cheshire League – Premier Division

I do like the Cheshire League, it’s good for the soul you know!

A combination of the leafy backdrops, pretty villages and of course the more urban surroundings provide that variety we all need in life, and when you then add in the fact it’s not that far away, it means as far as Step 7 goes, this is my favourite competition.

Some pedant will now come along and say that Step 7 doesn’t exist anymore, well, true, but it sits directly below Step 6, so, go away and count matchsticks or something, it will always be Step 7 as far as I’m concerned.

Digression aside, it’s a great league, with excellent social media, so much so, they announce the constitutions at the start of the season via a video linked Powerpoint presentation, what’s not to like about that?

Furthermore, some of the grounds are excellent, Middlewich Town, Greenall Padgate St Oswalds and today’s destination, Garswood United, have all competed in the North West Counties League previously, while the likes of Knutsford, Malpas, Whaley Bridge Athletic and Poynton are lovely grounds and settings.

In recent seasons the Cheshire League has provided clubs to the NWCL in the form of Rylands, Pilkington, Wythenshawe Town, Cheadle Heath Nomads and Sandbach United, so the quality is also plain to see.

Yes, I like it, and with some changes at the end of the last curtailed campaign, I’ve now got three new venues to visit this time around in the top flight. Starting with the aforementioned Garswood, who incidentally I tried to get to a couple of weeks ago for a friendly game, only for the bad weather see that plan scuppered.

Records show that Garswood joined the Mid-Cheshire League in 1988 from the Liverpool County Combination, rising to the top flight which they subsequently won in 1995-96 season. This saw them promoted to the NWCL where in their first season they finished third in the second tier. The year after they finished in eighth place but found themselves back in the Mid-Cheshire, where they stayed until 2007 when the league was re-named the Cheshire Football League.

The league championship came their way in the 2013-14 season, but by the end of 2017 a bottom placed finish saw them relegated to the second tier. When last season was abandoned they were well placed for promotion, having won twelve and lost just one of their sixteen games, although problems with waterlogging and the pitch meant they were having to schedule home games on the 4G at the JMO Sports Ground in Skelmersdale.

The league saw fit to promote them though, and this season they find themselves back in the top flight again.

Getting to Garswood is easy, you leave the M6 at Haydock, head West down the East Lancs Road and in less than a mile you turn off, with the village itself being a couple of miles further North on the road the eventually leads to Winstanley and Wigan. Bizarrely though, you could argue why the Cheshire League, when perhaps the Manchester League is geographically more appropriate, and possibly even the more Merseyside based options like the West Cheshire or the Liverpool County Leagues?

I suspect it is historic, as a few Cheshire League sides sit in this area, the likes of Billinge, FC St Helens, and one or two in the Warrington area, but whatever the reasons, these clubs seem more than happy with where they are placed.

Garswood is a small village, and a pleasant one too, with the ground being located just North of the centre on the village, on the road that eventually leads into Wigan. Set rurally, a decent sized car park greets you behind the East goal, while also behind this goal is the dressing rooms, impressive clubhouse and some cover containing seats at one end.

It’s hard standing around the rest of the ground and it’s fully enclosed, while the pitch looked in excellent condition. I have to say I really liked what I saw, and you could sense that this is a football club that have competed at a higher level in the past.

A decent sized crowd was drawn to the game, the opening league game of the season, but visitors Lostock Gralam from Northwich were in no mood to let the Wooders have it all their own way.

The hosts struggled to get into their stride in the first period, and it was the visitors who took the lead through Myles Wady who produced a powerful finish cutting in from the right hand side.

Garswood tried to up the tempo in the second period but again struggled to find any real fluency, and other than a penalty shout that wasn’t given, they didn’t really do enough for me to deserve anything from the game. I guess in a higher league the Wooders will need time to find their feet, and with an away game at Broadheath Central coming next (that I intend to go to), they will be looking to bounce back.

On a lovely day, it was a great way to start the competitive Saturday’s of 2020-21, in a league that never fails to deliver as far as I’m concerned.