Key details

Tuesday 30 July, 7.15 pm
Friendly
Brookburn Road, Chorlton, M21 8FE
Pre-Season Friendly
£5 adults / £3 concessions / £1 under-16s

Season Ticket holders get free entry to all home pre-season fixtures – find out more here, or buy yours now here.

Match Preview

West end their friendly schedule with a visit from our friends at Atherton Collieries, who have had a remarkable pre-season themselves.

Colls made international headlines over the past few weeks by entertaining 8 times champions of Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad - and promptly beating them 2-0 in front of 700 supporters. The touring side had previously beaten XIs from both Bolton Wanderers and Leeds United, but were put to the sword by Michael Clegg's men by goals in either half. This is just the latest success in a remarkable few years for Atherton, who were pipped to promotion from the NWCFL Division One by a single point back in 2012/13. They then won that division outright in 2014-15, before repeating the feat in the NWCFL Premier Division in 2016-17, and carrying on their meteoric rise by topping the Northern League Division One West last season. They've also tasted cup success along the way, winning the NWCFL league cup in 2015-16, and the Northern League Challenge Cup in 2017-18. This is a side rich in pedigree, and whose exploits any side in our division would love to emulate.

The man who was key to many of those early successes will be sat in the home dug-out - Brad Cooke was an integral part of the Colls midfield for all but the most recent of honours mentioned above, being club captain to boot. Assistants Warren Jones and Rob Sadler were both members of the backroom staff for many of those triumphs too, while some of the recruitment has been thanks to links made during the management team's time at Atherton - Matty Boland, Kris Holt, and Ash Woods all spent time at Colls, as have other members of the squad.

West last faced Atherton Collieries in pre-season back in 2017, where Brad captained the opposition that day as both sides took part in a ding-dong 3-3 draw: a similarly entertaining game would be a fitting way to end pre-season that has featured both highs and lows.