Taken from the programme for the visit of Irlam to Brookburn Road, available on the gate for £2.

Good evening all and welcome to Brookburn Road for tonight’s important league fixture against Irlam. We hope everyone connected with Irlam receives a warm welcome this evening and we wish you well for the season. In the absence of Maine Road this year Irlam represent our most ‘local’ rivals so bragging rights are up for grabs alongside the 3 points.

Irlam have enjoyed a successful start to the season including an excellent FA Cup campaign where they beat Prescott Cables and Runcorn Town. Having seen them play this season their league position is a little false and we will have to be at our best to get the win we desperately need.

Unfortunately, our recent performances haven’t been representative of the work we have seen on the training ground. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the lads look bright and sharp with good quality. Whilst there were signs of improvement against Droylsden, in the last 2 Saturday’s we have seen below par performances. Momentum is huge in football and at the minute we are bemoaning our luck a little. On Saturday, having not really played that well, we hit the bar twice in the last minute which would have given us the win and some much needed optimism to take into this week. Instead we exited the League Cup on penalties. The game itself was scrappy and largely lacking in quality. An early goal for Pottsy, making his first start this season should have allowed us to relax but we couldn’t really get a grip of the game and control possession, chiefly because our quality of passing and movement was below par. At half time we tried to stress to the lads that if they could improve their quality on the ball by 5 % we would retain possession and control the game! Unfortunately, we couldn’t do this until the last 15 minutes or so and it just wasn’t enough and alas the crossbar denied us twice in the last minute.

Of course, penalties are always a lottery with 9 out of 10 being scored. One positive to take away from Oswestry was Danny Mc getting on the scoresheet, his first of what we hope will be many for the club.

Before the game we picked an outfield 10 that we have unavailable through injury; Botchey, Rogers, J Mason, Zac Cooper; Jack Sergeant, Rory Breslin, Joe Shaw; Jaimie Coombes, Junior, Tom Bailey would probably give any team in our league a game! Of this 10 Botchey, Rogers and Junior should be upping their training this week and Jack Sergeant will hopefully be the week after!

On behalf of all the club I’d like to congratulate Joe Shaw and his better half Hannah on the birth of their son Finlay last week. After a short time in hospital both are now home and settling in well and we look forward to welcoming Joe back to the squad once he’s had some sleep and is on top of the nappy cleaning!!

The support the lads have received has been unwavering and they are extremely grateful! Keep with us, we will get it right!!

‘Positivity breeds success!’

Thanks for the support

– Setts