Sunday 2nd March 2025 ko 14:30

North West Counties League Division One North

DROYLSDEN 3 (Kasali 11 Kattah 27 Van 49)

DARWEN 2 (Bailey 3 Severino 49)

Att 1,184

Entry £6

Programme £2

On one level it was fairly predictable that this game, the last of this year’s North West Counties League Hop would see a huge crowd but perhaps not this large! You could easily argue it was caused by a former National League Premier side facing off against a former Football League one. There were a few nuances though.

For one Droylsden’s stint in non league’s top tier did only last one season, 2007-8 but they did inflict a televised defeat on my side, Oxford United. Some regard that as Oxford’s lowest point and I’m bound to say the two clubs fortunes have diverged since then.

I saw them a few months later as they inflicted a famous win over then League 2 Chesterfield in the FA Cup 2nd Round. What I saw was a replay but it was the 4th attempt to get the game played, and even then it counted for naught as Droylsden’s Sean Newton was found to be suspended so the tie ended up being awarded to Chesterfield. I know I’m digressing here, but I know one or groundhoppers who wouldn’t have counted the game. I’ll leave my opinion on that to your imagination!

Sadly Droylsden were an early casualty of the Covid pandemic They resigned from the Northern Premier League in 2020, went into abeyance, then 3 years later took a two division drop to the lowest rung of the North West Counties League. And while Darwen haven’t played League football since 1899, with all due respect to some of the other clubs we’d visited over the weekend, this fixture was of a quite different magnitude.

So much so, it was the biggest attendance GroundhopUK have ever organised at Step 6 and the second largest overall (in case you’re wondering Bridlington vs Scarborough 1569). I would add my usual caveat to that game and this, the attendance wasn’t just down to the groundhop factor, although I hope we helped! I wonder what the attendance would have been if the kick-off had been 3pm Saturday?

The crowd was bigger than the crowd vs Oxford (1,079) and I do wonder how they managed to squeeze in 2,824 for the game vs Chesterfield! It was busy and the pies ran out just before the queue eased sufficiently for me to consider joining it, so I’ll never be able to compare them with the other “Award winning” versions at Stockport Town! In the end I was just grateful that the club were able to get everyone in, host the game and allow egress effectively. I’m sure the crowd was extremely profitable!

The great joy of this game was that all worked so well, even down to managing to get the iconic shot of the Saxon Mill with the huge crowd to the side. The Saxon Mill produced vast amounts of cotton sheet, 8 billion yards of it in 1912 and if any one building sums up Droylsden- its that.

The hop’s finale was a superb game, where at one point I actually checked my team sheet to confirm we were watching a Division One game! I suspect it wasn’t an afternoon to be a goalkeeper but you are never ever going to complain about a game with both sides held the lead, are you?

It was an event that managed to both meet and exceed our expectations. To have all-but-one attendance over 500 is something special, but that does come with the responsibility of preparing the host clubs for what is likely to happen. Our thanks must also go to the league, and particularly Martin Fallon and Ben Wilkinson. This was Ben’s first hop and it is to his great credit that during this game, it felt like he’s been around to years!

From a GroundhopUK perspective this hop become arguably our most successful Step 5 and 6 hop, I certainly can’t think on any I’ve been involved with that have come close. And best of all we’ve got years of the North West Counties still to come!