by Garry Clarke
WARRINGTON Rylands host Warrington Town on Boxing Day at the Quickline Logistics Arena (Gorsey Lane), kick off 3pm, in a sold out Northern Premier League Premier Division local derby.
No matter what team you support, at whatever level of football as soon as the fixtures for a new season are released the first games any football fan will look for are the fixtures against their local rivals, their Derby games, and in Warrington it is no different.
Excluding games between teams from various parts of London, whilst there are the possibilities of five same town/city derbies in the Premier or Football Leagues there are no such fixtures in the National League set up leaving the step 3 Wire town clash as non-league football’s highest ranking same town/city derby game.
After a two year hiatus while Town were in the National League North battle lines are redrawn on Boxing Day when Blue meets Yellow with more than just three points up for grabs, especially for the fans who crave local pride and bragging rights just as much.
The two clubs last met on 14th January 2023 when Town came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win in front of a record Gorsey Lane crowd of 1,809. AJ Leitch-Smith gave the home side a 5th minute lead but two second half goals by Jordan Buckley ensured Town took the three points home with them.
Earlier the season (4th October 2022) the two teams had battled to a 3-3 draw in front of a Cantilever Park crowd of 1,520 in one of the most intense and fiercely contested round ball games staged in the town which will live long in the memory of everyone who was there. Two Callum Dolan goals gave Rylands a 2-0 half time lead before Stefan Mols pulled a goal back for Town. Kane Drummond restored Rylands two goal advantage before Luke Duffy halved the deficit again. Reduced to ten men following Bohan Dixon’s stoppage time red card, Town equalised with the last kick of the game when James Neild deflected the ball into his own net.
Previously the rivalry had lain dormant for over 44 years after Town left the Mid-Cheshire League (now Cheshire Football League) to join the Cheshire County League at the end of the 1977/78 season while Rylands remained until joining the North West Counties League in 2018 and making rapid progress through the pyramid system to catch up to Town in just 4 years.
Becoming founder members of the Cheshire County League’s newly formed second division Town’s elevation brought to an end a series of Warrington derby games which had started in 1968 when Rylands switched from the Liverpool County Combination to the Mid-Cheshire League to become the third Warrington based team in the competition, alongside Town and Crosfields.
Over the ten seasons’ in which both teams were members of the Mid-Cheshire League they met 21 times, 20 league games and one league cup tie. Rylands held the upper hand over the series of games winning 11 times compared to Town’s 7 victories, with 3 games being drawn and Rylands finished higher in the table on 6 occasions compared to Town’s 4 times.
The two teams had first met in Town’s inaugural season (1949/50) in the Warrington and District League Division two with the 3 points picked up from their 2-0 home win and3-3 draw at Gorsey Lane against Rylands helping Stockton Heath, as Town were originally known, to gain promotion at the first attempt.
So while it may not be the most high profile derby, in our Cheshire town on Boxing Day and on Easter Monday, there will be no bigger game anywhere.
Rylands who sit 4th on the NPL Premier Division table with 38 points from 22 games go into the Boxing Day game on the back of a 3-1 defeat away at Bamber Bridge while Town are 8th with 30 points from 21 games after their 0-0 draw at home with leaders Hednesford Town. Both sides have only won one of their last five league games.
On Tuesday Rylands announced that all tickets for the game had been sold.
