Saturday 28th February 2026

14:00 North West Counties League Division One North

THORNTON CLEVERLEYS P

MSB WOOLTON P

Postponed – waterlogged pitch

14:00 West Lancashire League Richardson Cup 3rd Round

BLACKPOOL WREN ROVERS 4 (Makepeace 15 Hanslip 56 90+2)

ASTLEY & BUCKSHAW UNITED 0

Att 218

Entry £3

17:00 North West Counties League First Division North

SQUIRES GATE 3 (Riley 21 Squires 46 Hawley 55og)

NELSON 5 (Hawley 17 Hughes 32 88 Green 72 81)

Att 482

Entry £7

Programme £3

We got the news as we were about to leave Fulwood Amateurs. There’d been rain but no-one had any inkling that there was an issue at Thornton Cleverleys. We knew how much the club were looking forward to hosting to the point that they’d asked to be involved well before joining the league. That hit us, and no doubt them hard, and hearing stories from folks that were already there makes us uneasy about what happened and why. We are still getting to the bottom of why Cleverleys weren’t at least given time to work on the pitch- we did have wriggle room after all. But for the avoidance of any doubt, Thornton Cleverleys will be on a subsquent hop, either in the North West Counties or the West Lancs- they were completely blameless in all of this. And after all that’s said and done, their floodlights could be useful!

We looked at where were could head but the overarching thought was that nothing should risk the attendance at Squires Gate later. And with the West Lancashire League cleverly scheduling their game half and hour early it made it an easy choice to head to Blackpool early, or should I say six months late? On one hand it wasn’t ideal, giving them a massive influx of groundhoppers with no time to prepare- exactly what we preach against, but they coped well despite the short notice and there was a silver lining.

It was according to both leagues, the only time that it has been possible to watch a game at Wren Rovers, adjacent Squires Gate, and AFC Blackpool 200 yards away one after the other. The circumstances were unfortunate to put it mildly, but it was fun to be part of a little slice of footballing history, and it is probably the only time I’ll watch 3 games of football without the coach ever moving!

Of course we’d tried to take in a game at Squires Gate two years ago, but the weather intervened! And given how many times we’d parked up at School Lane, it was a relief to finally pass through the gate! And with all respect to Wren Rovers you saw in an instant the difference between prepared and decisions on the hoof.

Homemade steak hotpot, and real ale (including a special “Groundhopper” brew) is always going to do well, and all credit to Squires Gate for having the volunteers and organisation to make it work beautifully. It was what any organiser loves, just count the crowd and let the club get on with it!

We also got the best game of the hop, and that wasn’t just because it seemed to rain goals. Nelson looked like what they turned out to be- champions, and but Squires Gate looked an excellent outfit, and matched the visitors for long periods of the game. There was only one small issue though.

All that hot pot did weigh heavy on the short walk over to AFC Blackpool!