By Surprise

Walshaw Sports  3  Rochdale Sacred Heart  1

Manchester League - Premier Division

Admission / Programme – Free / None

Yeah, I’ll be honest, I really didn’t see this one coming.

I mean, Walshaw Sports, playing at Walshaw Sports Club, why on earth would they suddenly up sticks and move to a new home? They had a pitch and a clubhouse in the village, albeit shared with cricket, but it was very nice, I went one Friday evening early in a season, it would have been a few years ago now, and I remember thinking what a great place to play football, and of course socialise.

So, why might they consider moving? Cricket maybe, but let’s be honest, plenty of clubs share with cricket and it doesn’t force them to move elsewhere? I know they had a few issues with waterlogging, but again, welcome to non-league football in the twenty first century, it’s an occupational hazard. Could it be to get promoted, they will need floodlights, so that could be a reason, or, have they simply fell out with someone and chosen / been forced to move away?

Anyway, the answer is, I didn’t know, and a week after having been, I still don’t know, but the fact of the matter is, they’ve moved to the 3G at Elton High School, and it caught myself and others off guard.

The journey round from Rushford Park was pretty straightforward, up through Longsight into Levenshulme, and then down Hyde Road to the M60. You have to then navigate your way round Bury town centre which on a Saturday lunchtime is quite a task, before heading up the hill past Elton Vale and out towards Walshaw itself, where the school is located on the left hand side. Noticing that plenty of cars were parked and a game looked to be well and truly on, I decided to head into Walshaw itself and find a pub, which I did. I’m good at finding pubs, after football grounds and the cheapest petrol stations, they are next on the radar.

I’d picked up from Twitter that both clubs were bigging up the game, it was a top of the table clash, with Walshaw having only lost once but won their other five games, while Sacred Heart had played five and won five, something had to give, unless of course it finished as a goalless draw in which case everyone would probably have left feeling a little flat. 

The 4G pitch is located at the rear of the school, up a slope, with the changing block to one side. You can only get access down one side and with a decent sized crowd in attendance it was quite tight, but it created a decent atmosphere. I bumped into Alan Oliver as I walked up to pitch side, a man who I met many years ago for the first time at an abandoned game at Newcastle Blue Star on a Good Friday afternoon. But, it wasn’t your straightforward common or garden abandonment due to water or ice, this was pretty spectacular as the corrugated sheeting from the stand roof at Kingston Park took off in the high winds and clattered onto the pitch. The game lasted twelve minutes, Alan and I retired to the bar, after which I went for a few beers in Newcastle before my train home, Alan blagged a lift home on the visiting Curzon Ashton team bus!

Anyway, Alan is a great lad who I see from time to time, he travels by public transport, loves his music, and if I see him, I always give him a lift to the nearest train or bus station. He’s an authority on non-league football in the Manchester area, and guess what, despite that, he didn’t know why Walshaw had moved either.

It turned out to be a good game, in fact it was a fast paced and very competitive encounter in which both benches had plenty to say to each other, the officials, players and any supporters who cared to engage in a spot of banter / sledging! All good fun it was, but with an edge, not a nasty edge, but an edge all the same, which is what you would expect when two local rivals are battling away at the top of the league.

Sacred Heart took the lead through Owen Whitehead, but second half goals from Jack Law and a brace from Elliot Collinson saw Walshaw get the victory that on the balance of the game they probably deserved.

The Manchester League top flight is a competitive animal, especially nowadays with clubs starting to see the promotion pathway to the North West Counties League as a viable option. We’ve seen Stockport Georgians, Wythenshawe Amateur, Avro  and Prestwich Heys make the move over recent seasons and certainly not struggle, so in my humble opinion I don’t think either Walshaw Sports or Rochdale Sacred Heart would have any problems adapting if that was a route they chose to go down.

All will be revealed at the end of December when the deadline for applications to Step Six passes, maybe then we’ll work out if that was the reason why Walshaw Sports took us all a little bit by surprise at the start of the season!