CHASETOWN 3
CONGLETON TOWN 3
(Northern Premier League Division One West)
After their shocking initiation into the Northern Premier League last Saturday, the Bears were quickly back in action on the road, more than 50 miles south to the Chasetown area of Burntwood, Staffordshire, a coal-mining area until 1959.
Chasetown, “The Scholars”, were formed in 1954, an offshoot of Chase Terrace High School (writes Mike McLaughlin).
They reached the Northern Premier League Division One Division One South in 2010.
Last season they finished 11th of the 20 teams in the West Division.
This season, they won their FA Cup extra extra preliminary round 2-1, but then lost in the league 4-1 at Clitheroe last Saturday.
Their stadium, The Scholars Ground, has a capacity of 3,000 and an artificial pitch.
“A very tidy, well-appointed ground. Plastic pitch, unfortunately,” observed Ray Ogden.
The Bears team, still depleted, was announced as Ziglam, Stringer, Morris, Williams, Ryder, Duffy, Sankey, Hartshorn (C), McCarthy, Garner-Knapper and Needham with Hampton, Hall, Jedrzejczyk and Griffiths on the bench.
The crowd was announced as 451, with much vocal and visual evidence that the Bears’ Battalions were well represented.
The game they were eagerly anticipating began in balanced fashion.
Chasetown wrested plenty of early possession but the Bears were unmoved, fully committed and challenging resolutely.
Neither side created anything of note until, on 16 minutes, some hesitation in the Bears’ defence allowed a cross from the right to sail through the area, be headed back across and nodded in from close range. 1-0.
Intent
They responded well, attacking with increasing intent, the game even.
The Bears were edging territory but neither side was opening up the other.
Then, on 30 minutes, the visitors built impressively down their left. Stringer fed Sankey. He moved menacingly forward and a thunderbolt flew into the top corner of the net: 1-1.
Play flowed, pleasing on the eye to both sets of fans.
On 44 minutes, a neat pass forward pierced – once again momentarily – a hesitant Bears defence and the ball was slotted home: 2-1.
Somewhat surprising, certainly disappointing.
The Bears opened the second half well.
Strongly
McCarthy and Needham combined nicely and Needham shot strongly.
Stringer ran hard into the home defence.
Williams shrewdly prompted Sankey, his shot winning a corner.
Sankey again, this time skipping into the area and shooting hard and low, but narrowly wide.
It was on 60 minutes when McCarthy received the ball in the area, turned sharply and shot sweetly across the keeper into the far corner – 2-2.
The Bears were now in charge, their fans loving it, their support resounding around the ground.
A Knapper shot was deflected.
Morris powered forward.
Williams supplied Morris and Needham was desperately close to converting his cross.
Finally, the Bears took the lead.
On 78 minutes, as the home defence floundered, Needham sprang forward and scored with a precise lob, 2-3.
Chasetown battled back, but it was slightly disappointing when they equalised on 88 minutes with a very well-taken penalty.
Four minutes of added time followed, but a 3-3 draw it was.
Manager Duffy admitted later that his team needed to get something from the game and thought that they had done enough “to nick it”.
Overall, however, he was delighted. His team had played “good stuff” and had been solid, creating good chances.
Last Saturday, he said, they had given their worst performance for two seasons. Three days later they had shown what they could do.
Ray Ogden was similarly pleased, relieved after Saturday’s debacle. “A good game between two evenly matched teams … we need to tighten up in defence … when in doubt, welly it. Three class goals … well worth a share of the spoils, and maybe could have won it.”
He added: “The young woman referee had a great game, probably the best ref we’ve seen for a long time – her name is Grace Lowe.” It was also noted later on X (formerly Twitter) that the Chasetown welcome and hospitality had been “world class” and the travelling support had been “out of this world”.
