Football Alliance Cup 2018 - 19: Second Round Replay

Dynamo Mossley 3 Manchester Marxist Polytechnic 2 [a.e.t.]

Football Alliance 2015 - 16: League Results Grids and Final Tables

To finalise the statistics for the recently-concluded 2015 - 16 domestic season, today we present the results grids and final league tables for the national Championship and Second Division.

Matchday #30: Results and Final League Tables

Championship

Blyth Spartans 2  Excelsior Marlow 1
Dynamo Burnley 2  Spartak-Slavia 0
Hartlepool Petrochemical 2  Gainsborough Trinity 3
Liverpool St Helens 1  Red Star Mossley 2
Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 2  Manchester Central 2
Marine 8  Audenshaw Dynamo 0
Northwich Victoria 2  Wrexham 2
Stalybridge Celtic 3  Hungaria 1

Second Division

Bohemians 2  Merthyr Tydfil 1
Bradford Park Avenue 4  Marxist Polytechnic 3
Caledonia Thistle 3  Atletico Espanol 3
Crystal Palace 3  Sheffield Wednesday 2
Excelsior Benelux 2  Newcastle Blue Star 2
Inter-Italiano 2  Hendon Hotspur 0
Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 1  Torpedo Tranmere 3
South Liverpool Red Star 5  Manchester Newton Heath 3

 

 





The League reached its conclusion with Marine emerging as champions, thrashing Audenshaw Dynamo 8 - 0 - a result that also relegated the latter - to overtake Liverpool St Helens who lost, at the death, to Red Star Mossley, coincidentally the very team who had also recently put paid to Saints’ prospects in the Cup with another 2 - 1 victory in their semi-final replay.

Surprisingly in the aftermath of such an emphatic triumph, Marine’s was a first win in the five matches since what can now be considered their ultimately decisive victory at St Helens, but come the hour when they required nothing less than a positive result the Mariners produced the goods in irresistible style, subjecting hapless Audenshaw to wave after wave of attacks, settling any nerves by taking an early lead and then adding regularly to their score before, as Mossley scored late on the break at St Helens to hole the hosts’ hopes, celebrating their impending coronation with a gleeful three-goal salvo in the final five minutes.  Among the front-runners all season, & frequently leaders, Marine’s Championship-winning achievement cannot be underestimated, given that only once before in the now 36-year history of the national Football Alliance has a newly-promoted team won the league, even if the Mariners were only absent from the top flight for a single season before stepping up at the end of last term, the winning habit of promotion momentum obviously standing them in good stead & being maintained throughout this season until its successful conclusion. If Audenshaw can take anything from the double humiliation of both this defeat and the relegation it confirmed, it must be this experience that a club can bounce back so spectacularly from demotion.

For Liverpool St Helens, meanwhile, there remains nothing but the disappointment that their efforts ultimately fell short, on the day equalizing the concession of a first half goal to Mossley but never really gaining control of a match against in-form, stylish and well-organized opponents with Cup Final places next week to play for before succumbing to a sucker punch goal as they cast caution to the wind in search of the winner that would have won them the title irrespective of Marine’s efforts.  Such are the narrow margins between success and failure, Saints again missing out on the big prize after last season’s near miss, this one even more agonizingly closer although, ironically, their last term’s points tally would have won this one’s title, just, as would have the two points from a win over Mossley. Tellingly, St Helens’ loss to Red Star was their fifth in the six matches over the season against fellow ‘top four’ rivals (although, despite Mossley’s and Gainsborough Trinity’s strong finishes, only the top three were ever in the title race after the turn of the year) - their only win coming, even more frustratingly, at Mossley - which, added to last year’s return of just one point from the similar group of fixtures, identifies the root cause of the club’s failure to emerge on top of the pile, at least yet.

Reigning champions Stalybridge Celtic were relying on both of those clubs who began the day above them to lose in order to keep the slim hopes of retaining their title alive and at least did their bit with a straightforward 3 - 1 defeat of mid-table Hungaria, even as those hopes gradually flickered out with news of every goal Marine were plundering over in Crosby, establishing an unassailable lead in both their match and over Celtic. As St Helens simultaneously faltered, Stalybridge’s win at least allowed them the small consolation of claiming the runners-up ‘honours’ before their upcoming Champions’ Cup semi-final replay against Atletico Madrid in Paris and another shot at ending the season with a trophy and glory. Four defeats in the six local derby matches - to which can be added a Cup exit at the hands of Manchester Central - and a few others that seemed avoidable (and last season probably would have been avoided) significantly served to undermine Celtic’s Championship challenge this term, leaving them tantalisingly short of the rare achievement of successive titles.

Below the top three, Red Star Mossley’s fine win at St Helens secured fourth place, to which they could yet add the Cup, whilst Gainsborough Trinity finished level on points in fifth after a 3 - 2 win at long-relegated Hartlepool Petrochemical - for both Mossley and Gainsborough, eventually ending the season with but three points fewer than the champions’ total, the league campaign could very much be regarded as a case of what might have been, again in the latter’s case and if only the Tony Mucklethwaite effect had been applied a little earlier in terms of the former, although a close analysis of Mossley’s results since appointing their former playing stalwart as manager reveals that, for all the rejuvenated team’s fine results, the contextually anomalous failures to win at either the ultimately demoted pair Audenshaw and Hartlepool, with an eminently winnable five points thus dropped, proved the difference between fourth and first: perhaps next term might bring the required consistency to mount a concerted challenge for the title?

At the opposite end of the table, Audenshaw Dynamo, having last week slid into the bottom two at the most inopportune time after a poor run of results coupled with Locomotive Crewe Alexandra’s recent revival, required nothing less than a win at Marine in order to have a shot at survival but, despite a brave effort, could obviously do nothing to stem the tide of the Mariners, even more determined as they were to gain the victory that could, and of course subsequently did, bring them championship glory: a 0 - 8 trouncing was a brutally cruel and humiliating manner of having relegation confirmed, as was the contrast in fortunes with victorious Marine, but the fact that the score only contributed to Audenshaw finishing the season with the worst goals-against total in the division highlights the single most significant contributory factor in them ultimately suffering the fate they did.

Crewe earned what would have proved an insufficient point from a 2- 2 draw with Manchester Central had Audenshaw miraculously prevailed at Marine, but, despite a season-long struggle for the newly-promoted Alex, they had done just enough to survive with crucially timely back-to-back wins in their previous two matches.   

Dynamo Burnley were the only other club to begin the day in any danger but a comfortable 2 - 0 victory at home to Spartak-Slavia allayed any fears, enabling the Clarets to finish fourth-bottom and draw level on 25 points with Excelsior Marlow, who ended the season with a sixth consecutive defeat, 1 - 2 at Blyth Spartans, a slump that left them relieved to have previously garnered a sufficient reserve to keep them clear of the relegation-threatened pack: in a curious statistic, Marlow’s final points tally, when added to last term’s 24, when they only just avoided the ignominy of being demoted as reigning champions, makes for a combined two-season total of the same 49 with which they won the title in some style in 2013-14, a palpable measure of their steep decline since, which the pre-season merger with last season’s wooden-spoonists Oxford seems to have done little to arrest.

Elsewhere, Northwich Victoria and Wrexham drew 2 - 2 in mid-table, enabling both to add another point to totals that improved upon last season’s - Northwich by a healthy seven and inconsistent Wrexham (who beat Marine home and away and achieved the season’s highest score in pasting Blyth 9 - 2 but lost twice by an aggregate of 2 - 11 to Manchester Central, who they finished a place above) by a more modest four - and respectively finish two places higher than last term. Manchester Central’s first season as such, rebranded from City, saw them finish five points and five places worse off, although their young team showed moments of potential, whilst Blyth Spartans struggled in most disappointing fashion, totalling ten points less than last term and plummeting from fourth and beaten Cup finalists to eleventh. Final day defeats for the eastern-flavoured pair Spartak-Slavia, debuting in the top flight after promotion in their inaugural season at national level last year, and Hungaria, still only two years old as an institution themselves, did little to dent what have been solid mid-table campaigns for both, finishing seventh and eighth respectively, worthy opponents for anyone and a match for the best on their day.

In the Second Division, one matter remained to be settled at either end of the table, with the combination of final scores resulting in Torpedo Tranmere winning promotion to the Championship and, at the other end of the emotional scale, Caledonia Thistle suffering relegation, although not necessarily back to the regional leagues but rather, possibly, the third tier of a revamped four-division national structure that is still under consideration at this juncture.

Tranmere timed their run to perfection, keeping pace with the promotion pack all season but never actually ascending to second place until this very last day, the three points gained from a relatively straightforward 3 - 1 victory at long-relegated Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo elevating them above Sheffield Wednesday who fell 2 - 3 at Crystal Palace, the hosts snatching their winner as Wednesday strained every sinew in search of one of their own - more than this result, however, painful though it is in the immediate aftermath, the Owls will especially rue last weekend’s loss at home to wooden-spoonists Dynamo, in addition to earlier ones to another two of the relegated quartet, Atletico Espanol and Caledonia Thistle, ultimately undermining all their good results over the campaign that, cumulatively, had seen them spend only one brief week out of the top two since before the turn of the year and meaning they narrowly miss out on promotion again. For Tranmere, back at national level after a long break, it is a fabulous achievement for a young and stylish team to make the step up to the Championship at the first attempt, akin to Spartak-Slavia last term, and their season is still not over, with the Cup final against Red Star Mossley to come next Saturday, reached, let it not be overlooked, courtesy of matching and mostly out-playing subsequent champions Marine over both matches of the clubs’ semi-final tussle.

Leaving the division via the other exit, Caledonia Thistle owed their demise to a failure on the day to overcome second-bottom and already-demoted Atletico Espanol, finding themselves two goals in arrears before a late comeback earned but a point that was insufficient to overhaul Manchester Newton Heath despite the latter’s defeat at South Liverpool Red Star, the Heath finishing level with Thistle but surviving by the narrowest of margins by virtue of an extra away win over the course of the season. For Red Star, their win contributed to a total of 27 points garnered from the last 12 matches, an astonishing run of form, by far the best in the division, that, had they not endured such an underwhelming first half to the campaign, would surely have seem them very much in the promotion mix - as ever, consistency is key to success in the league.



 

Matchday #27: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Audenshaw Dynamo 7  Excelsior Marlow 4
Dynamo Burnley 3  Blyth Spartans 1
Hungaria 6  Hartlepool Petrochemical 3
Liverpool St Helens 4  Northwich Victoria 2
Red Star Mossley 5  Gainsborough Trinity 0
Spartak-Slavia 4  Marine 3
Stalybridge Celtic 2  Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 1
Wrexham 1  Manchester Central 4

 

 

Second Division

 

Atletico Espanol 1  Marxist Polytechnic 2

Crystal Palace 2  Bradford Park Avenue 3

Excelsior Benelux 2  Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 0

Manchester Newton Heath 4  Inter-Italiano 1

Newcastle Blue Star 3  Hendon Hotspur 1

Sheffield Wednesday 1  Caledonia Thistle 2

South Liverpool Red Star 1  Bohemians 0

Torpedo Tranmere 5  Merthyr Tydfil 3

 

 

What had seemed to be the clearer picture emerging in the Championship race recently became suddenly murkier again as leaders Marine succumbed to defeat by the odd goal in seven at Spartak-Slavia, enabling the chasing pair Liverpool St Helens and Stalybridge Celtic to close the gap by two points each after achieving home victories themselves.

In a twist of fate that defied what has become the norm, habitual brinksmen Marine went down to a late, late goal after recovering to 3 - 3 from 1 - 3 down, a dramatic denouement to a match of high excitement and scintillating skill, whilst St Helens eventually overpowered and outgunned an obdurate Northwich Victoria - who had led 2 - 1 going into the final ten minutes - to prevail 4 - 2 and defending title-holders Stalybridge edged past second-bottom Locomotive Crewe Alexandra by 2 - 1 after an uncharacteristically nervy and wholly unconvincing performance, the plucky visitors unfortunate not to earn at least a draw to aid their fight for survival: again, Celtic seemed to be suffering something of a European hangover after gaining that slender first-leg advantage over Slavia Prague in a hard-fought Champions’ Cup quarter-final in midweek.

The three scores at Stalybridge proved to be the lowest total of the day in any of the Championship fixtures, as goals rained in elsewhere, most torrentially at Audenshaw, where Dynamo, hit for seven last week at Wrexham, extracted the same payment this time from Excelsior Marlow who replied with four of their own, lifting the home team four points clear of Crewe in the relegation zone even though they remain third from bottom as a result of the other Dynamo - Burnley’s - 3 - 1 win over Blyth Spartans. Burnley’s was a crucial victory, as now both of the latter pair and Marlow should have enough of a cushion, with only three league games remaining, to avoid the drop, and, above them, Manchester Central’s stylish 4- 1 triumph at consistently inconsistent Wrexham - one of the Citizens’ favourite and most accommodating of opponents, after the 7 - 1 result in their favour in the earlier reverse fixture - assures them of top flight status for next term whilst also suggesting the potential for the rebranded club with its mostly young team to improve on this campaign’s showing. For each of the three beaten teams in that cluster of results, this season, largely one of disappointing returns, especially for Blyth but also for Marlow and Wrexham even if slightly improved, can’t end soon enough and a summer of much soul-searching and rebuilding surely lies ahead.

Quite possibly the Championship’s result of the day was Red Star Mossley’s comprehensive 5 - 0 pulverizing of a thoroughly chastened Gainsborough Trinity, the victors following the resumption last week of their fine run of form this calendar year, after the recent anomaly of the crazy-day derby defeat at Audenshaw, with another impressive performance and the goals it so richly deserved. Cup semi-finalists next weekend, Mossley have become a match for any team and could end the season with silverware and very much on a high if such excellence is maintained.

Finally, Hungaria put six past hapless Hartlepool Petrochemical, already relegated by their defeat last week, who replied with a purely academic three of their own, enabling the East End Magyars to leapfrog Northwich in mid-table.

 

Hartlepool’s replacement in next season’s top flight will be Marxist Polytechnic, whose narrow but ultimately crucial 2 - 1 victory at Atletico Espanol, combined with defeats for faltering pursuers Sheffield Wednesday and Bohemians, guaranteed not only the students’ promotion but also confirmed them as champions of the Second Division in their inaugural campaign at national level, with three games to spare, a fine achievement even if quite a premium selection of players have been co-opted to their cause - nevertheless, a fine team has been moulded and the Poly should have the means and be able to prosper at the higher level.  Wednesday’s and Boh’s woes enabled Torpedo Tranmere to slip into third, between the two, level on points with the second-placed Owls, however skittish their performance in the fluctuating but eventual 5 - 3 win over Merthyr Tydfil - all is still very much to play for over the remaining three fixtures in the battle to secure the runners-up position and promotion. As Sheffield Wednesday’s collective nerve was failing at home to Caledonia Thistle - the Anglo-Scots’ 2 - 1 triumph bringing them what could be a priceless three points in their desperate struggle  to avoid relegation - so Tranmere’s fellow Merseysiders South Liverpool Red Star were undermining Bohemians’ challenge, a narrow but impressive and deserved 1 - 0 win continuing South’s fine run of results and form over the second half of the season that, but for a contrastingly poor opening semester, could well have seen them vying for promotion too. As it is, the Liverpudlian Red Star have achieved a comfortable mid-table position that should be maintained until the campaign’s conclusion and has perhaps established a platform from which to build towards greater things next term.

Bradford Park Avenue’s 3 - 2 win at Crystal Palace keeps open a glimmer of the possibility of finishing second should all three rivals above them crumble, whilst, although only a point further behind, Hendon Hotspur’s defeat at Newcastle Blue Star, a 1 - 3 defeat that could easily have been at least twice as bad had Blue Star taken but a mere fraction of the deluge of chances they created with such rare style and panache, probably extinguishes any hopes the north Londoners may have harboured of timing a late charge through the pack.

Excellent though Caledonia Thistle’s win in Sheffield was, Manchester Newton Heath managed to keep just ahead of them and thus out of the relegation places by the most slender of margins courtesy of an impressive 4 - 1 triumph over Inter-Italiano who, with also-defeated Merthyr, are now only two points ahead and casting slightly more nervous glances than previously over their respective shoulders.

Deeper in the mire, Atletico Espanol’s loss to Marxist Polytechnic exacerbates what appears to be their pretty hopeless plight at second-bottom, whilst Excelsior Benelux’s 2 - 0 defeat of Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo, although welcome (not least the clean sheet after concessions of six, seven and another six goals in their three previous outings), was rendered less helpful to their cause by Thistle and Newton Heath’s points-gaining and simultaneously terminal to their opponent’s hopes of avoiding the drop. As with the merged north-east club in the Championship, the Tynesiders’ fate of relegation is an ignominious one and, if rumours of the imminent demise of a club that few supporters have taken to their hearts and minds are well-founded, the season truly has been a failed experiment in keeping what was ‘Newcastle United’, twice former league champions, in the Football Alliance and, indeed, alive in some form. Unfortunate it is too that the name of Gateshead, in their ‘United’ incarnation founder members of the Alliance and such stalwarts of the second tier particularly, will disappear from the national setup and the football landscape, at least in the short term.

 

 

 

 

 



 













Matchday #24: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Excelsior Marlow 2  Dynamo Burnley 1
Gainsborough Trinity 2  Northwich Victoria 4
Hartlepool Petrochemical 2  Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 3
Manchester Central 1  Liverpool St Helens 3
Marine 6  Blyth Spartans 0
Red Star Mossley3  Hungaria 0
Spartak-Slavia 2  Audenshaw Dynamo 1
Wrexham 4  Stalybridge Celtic 3

 

 

Second Division

 

Caledonia Thistle 2  Bradford Park Avenue 1

Hendon Hotspur 2  Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 1

Inter-Italiano 2  Bohemians 3

Marxist Polytechnic 4  Crystal Palace 4

Merthyr Tydfil 6  Excelsior Benelux 5

Newcastle Blue Star 2  Manchester Newton Heath 1

Sheffield Wednesday 1  Atletico Espanol 2

Torpedo Tranmere 0  South Liverpool Red Star 3

 





Matchday #23: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Audenshaw Dynamo 2  Hungaria 2
Blyth Spartans 1  Manchester Central 1
Dynamo Burnley 2  Red Star Mossley 2
Hartlepool Petrochemical 1  Marine 2
Liverpool St Helens 6  Wrexham 2
Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 2  Gainsborough Trinity 4
Northwich Victoria 1  Excelsior Marlow 0
Stalybridge Celtic 4  Spartak-Slavia 1

Second Division

Atletico Espanol 4  Manchester Newton Heath 2
Bohemians 6  Hendon Hotspur 2
Bradford Park Avenue 3  Merthyr Tydfil 2
Crystal Palace 4  Newcastle Blue Star 2
Excelsior Benelux 3  Torpedo Tranmere 3
Inter-Italiano 2 Caledonia Thistle 1
Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 2  Marxist Polytechnic 1
South Liverpool Red Star 1  Sheffield Wednesday 2



Wins for the top three, defeats for the bottom two and draws for each of the four immediately above result in no changes of place at either ‘business’ end of the Championship table, although Marine in second pulled a point closer - now just one behind - to leaders Stalybridge Celtic thanks, yet again, to a ‘man of the last moment’ Tegwyn Prothero goal proving decisive at doomed but gallant Hartlepool Petrochemical, who took an early lead, were inevitably pegged back but held on until the 90th minute before the Mariners and the deadly Teg broke their resistance with the killer winner. Stalybridge handed-out a 4 - 1 spanking to Spartak-Slavia after their visitors had taken impertinent advantage of Celtic’s opening sluggishness to sneak a goal start, Eoghan Money greedily helping himself to another hat-trick in the process, whilst Liverpool St Helens - fall-guys at Spartak last time out - arrested a two-match losing streak by taking inconsistent Wrexham to the cleaners to the tune of 6 - 2: had not Saints eased-off after establishing a 4 - 0 half-time lead, perhaps preserving energy for potentially sterner tests ahead, Wrexham could easily have been on course to concede something in the region of the nine goals they hammered past hapless Blyth Spartans last weekend.

Today, Blyth’s draw at home to Manchester Central enabled each to edge a point clearer of the relegation places, remaining above both the Dynamic duo Audenshaw and Burnley, whose respective ties with Hungaria and Red Star Mossley put three points between them and second-bottom Locomotive Crewe Alexandra, losers at home to Gainsborough Trinity, themselves emerging from a recent trough with a second four-goal winning salvo in four days, demonstrating admirable stamina in addition to an impressive strike-rate following their midweek extra-time Cup-Winners’ Cup comeback victory against the Finns Kuusysi Lahti.

Finally, Northwich Victoria moved back above Wrexham and into the top half of the table after a solitary goal proved sufficient to overcome Excelsior Marlow, which the losers might almost regard as something of a moral victory following last season’s 1 - 7 humbling at the Vics, the epitome of the trauma the then-defending champions were suffering.

In the Second Division, it proved to be a perfect day for Sheffield Wednesday as their hard-fought 2 - 1 victory at South Liverpool Red Star, secured but a couple of minutes from time, both brought them three points closer in second place to leaders Marxist Polytechnic, shock losers at lowly Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo, and took them a further two clear of Torpedo Tranmere who shared six goals at also-struggling Excelsior Benelux, thus opening up the comparative luxury of a four-point gap on third position and the separation between promotion success and failure.

In fourth, Bohemians arrested a losing streak by hitting Hendon Hotspur, with whom they had begun proceedings level on points, for six, whilst Crystal Palace in sixth caught up with Hendon after scoring four of the six goals in their match against Newcastle Blue Star.

Bradford Park Avenue kept pace in seventh, beating Merthyr Tydfil by the odd goal in five.

Atletico Espanol enjoyed a second successive home victory, 4 - 2 over  Manchester Newton Heath this time, but despite this relative burst of form remain bottom as a consequence of Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo’s highly unlikely win, their only consolation being that, like the Geordies, they have gained two points on the safety cut-off. Caledonia Thistle also remain in deep trouble at third-bottom, suffering a narrow defeat at Inter-Italiano, consistent with their away form that has so far seen the Anglo-Scots fail to record even a single victory on the road, in common with only the two sides below them.

Matchday #22: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Excelsior Marlow 5  Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 3

Gainsborough Trinity 2  Marine 2

Hungaria 2  Dynamo Burnley 1

Manchester Central 6  Hartlepool Petrochemical 1

Red Star Mossley 6  Northwich Victoria 3

Sparta-Slavia 2  Liverpool St Helens 0

Stalybridge Celtic 4  Audenshaw Dynamo 2

Wrexham 9  Blyth Spartans 2

 



Second Division

Hendon Hotspur 2  Caledonia Thistle 1

Manchester Newton Heath 0  Crystal Palace 1

Marxist Polytechnic 5  Bohemians 0

Merthyr Tydfil 5  Inter-Italiano 2

Newcastle Blue Star 3  Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 2

Sheffield Wednesday 3  Excelsior Benelux 1

South Liverpool Red Star 4  Atletico Espanol 3

Torpedo Tranmere 3  Bradford Park Avenue 2

 

 

A win - draw - loss return for each of the top three respectively has resulted in the field becoming slightly more spread out after the current round of fixtures. Apparently suffering no ill-effects following their midweek European Champions’ Cup trip to Moscow - from which they returned splendidly victorious, of course - leaders Stalybridge Celtic negotiated a typically feisty derby with Audenshaw Dynamo to emerge on top by 4 - 2 courtesy of two decisive strikes in the final 10 minutes and earn the two precious points that extend their advantage to the same. Second-placed Marine remain so with a point gained courtesy of another comeback draw, this time at Gainsborough, arch-brinksman Tegwyn Prothero again popping up to poach an equaliser at the death to deny Trinity a morale-boosting victory after two cup losses, the first most-shockingly-ever at home to Bootle White Star in the domestic competition and terminal to their status as holders, the second a two-goal reverse in Finland in the first leg of their inaugural Cup-Winners’ Cup tie that has cast considerable doubt on Gainsborough’s chances of progressing in Europe. Erstwhile front-runners Liverpool St Helens, victims of Stalybridge in a potentially pivotal result last weekend, suffered a second successive loss to nil, well beaten at Spartak-Slavia who thus pulled to within two points of the Saints, admirably fourth in their debut season in the top flight. A point behind the Anglo-Slavs are Red Star Mossley, still unbeaten in both league and cup under new boss Tony Mucklethwaite, this time subjecting Northwich Victoria to an impressive 6 - 3 tonking, with, to be fair, the Vics playing their part in a scintillating goalfest, even holding a 2 - 1 lead at one point before being blown away by a four goals in ten minutes salvo from Red Star.

Hungaria leapfrogged Gainsborough following a narrow and highly-contentious 2 - 1 win against Dynamo Burnley, whose only consolation was that none of their rivals in the danger zone picked up points either, Audenshaw immediately above going down at Stalybridge of course, Locomotive Crewe Alexandra just below in the second demotion spot taking a 5 - 3 beating at Excelsior Marlow - now firmly and safely ensconced in mid-table following last season’s relegation-threatened traumas - and rock-bottom Hartlepool Petrochemical being thrashed 6 - 1 at Manchester Central, which latter result enabled the Mancs to record a first league victory of the year, halting their inexorably downward spiral, and thus exchange places with Blyth Spartans, who turned in a shamefully shambolic non-performance at Wrexham and consequently suffered a season’s-worst 9 - 2 humiliation to follow the disappointment of last weekend’s Cup elimination.

The Second Division’s top-four clash saw Marxist Polytechnic assert their leadership in ruthless fashion, the students exposing increasingly-flaky Bohemians’ promotion pretensions with a 5 - 0 thrashing and maintaining their five-point advantage over Sheffield Wednesday in the process, the Owls eventually overcoming struggling Excelsior Benelux 3 - 1 after trailing for the greater part of an hour. Torpedo Tranmere made it a hat-trick of wins for the top three by squeezing past Bradford Park Avenue 3 - 2, also coming from behind to do so. Hendon Hotspur joined Bohemians in joint-fourth with another narrow victory margin, 2- 1 against visitors Caledonia Thistle, who remain third-bottom and very much in danger. There was no change, indeed, at the wrong end of the table, with four of the starting bottom five losing by the odd goal, Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 2 - 3 in the derby at Blue Star, Atletico Espanol 3 - 4 in a thriller at South Liverpool Red Star - whose recent surge has taken them to the heady heights of mid-table - and Manchester Newton Heath going down to a single smash-and-grab goal at home to Crystal Palace. Elsewhere, Merthyr Tydfil recovered some self-respect following their previous 10 - 2 pasting at Hendon to mistreat their guests Inter-Italiano to the tune of 5 - 2, exchanging mid-table places with Inter in the process.



 

 





Matchday #21: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Audenshaw Dynamo 4  Dynamo Burnley 2
Blyth Spartans 4  Spartak-Slavia 1
Gainsborough Trinity 5  Manchester Central 2
Hartlepool Petrochemical 0  Wrexham 2
Liverpool St Helens 0  Stalybridge Celtic 1
Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 1  Red Star Mossley 2
Marine 4  Excelsior Marlow 0
Northwich Victoria 1  Hungaria 2

Second Division

Atletico Espanol 3  Crystal Palace 1
Bohemians 0  Newcastle Blue Star 1
Bradford Park Avenue 2  Sheffield Wednesday 2
Caledonia Thistle 1  Marxist Polytechnic 5
Excelsior Benelux 0  South Liverpool Red Star 2
Hendon Hotspur 10  Merthyr Tydfil 2
Inter-Italiano 1  Torpedo Tranmere 2
Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 3  Manchester Newton Heath 2

 

Pivotal. That could well be the word to describe Stalybridge Celtic’s 1 - 0 win at Liverpool St Helens, a single goal, inevitably and unerringly scored by Eoghan Money, in a closely-fought contest of few genuine chances enabling the reigning champions to replace Saints as leaders of the pack, exactly the type of result against a direct rival that ultimately decides fates and the destination of honours. St Helens’ defeat was rendered all the more costly, as the two points gained from Marine’s comfortable 4 - 0 victory over Excelsior Marlow moved Crosby’s finest up into second place above their local rivals, Tegwyn Prothero following up last weekend’s rescue-act brace of goals with a hat-trick this time out.

Wins for Red Star Mossley, Gainsborough Trinity and Hungaria enabled each to gain a little on Spartak-Slavia, who remain fourth, but now four points adrift of the top three, despite a 4 - 1 beating at Blyth Spartans which elevated the victors to the heady heights of eleventh position, further clear of danger, leapfrogging Manchester Central, Gainsborough’s victims, in the process. In the relegation places, Hartlepool Petrochemical’s and Locomotive Crewe Alexandra’s home defeats, to Wrexham and Mossley respectively, leaves matters unchanged, but Audenshaw’s rip-roaring 4 - 2 win over Burnley in the battle of the Dynamos resulted in the two exchanging third- and fourth-bottom places two points above the basement pair, again, as at the top of the table, a potentially critical outcome.

 

Of those challenging to replace those eventually relegated from the Championship, Marxist Polytechnic cemented their position atop the Second Division even more firmly with a devastating 5 - 1 win at Caledonia Thistle that confirms the Anglo-Scots as being deep in danger of departing the division via the other route, back down to the regional leagues.  Sheffield Wednesday’s 2- 2 Yorkshire derby draw at Bradford Park Avenue maintains their second position, albeit two points further adrift of the student leaders. Wednesday remain two points clear of third, but that berth is now occupied by resurgent Torpedo Tranmere, whose last-gasp 2- 1 win at Inter-Italiano enabled them to move above Bohemians, who suffered a second successive league loss, on this occasion surprisingly at home to Newcastle Blue Star.

South Liverpool Red Star’s renaissance continues courtesy of a 2 - 0 win at Excelsior Benelux, who remain fourth bottom but now three points adrift of safety. Unusually, both of the bottom two won, Atletico Espanol beating Crystal Palace most impressively, 3 - 1, and Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo edging Manchester Newton Heath 3 - 2, although both clubs remain in grave danger of the drop as games begin to run out.

 







Matchday #20: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Dynamo Burnley 3  Northwich Victoria 2
Excelsior Marlow 1  Manchester Central 1
Hungaria 7  Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 2
Liverpool St Helens 8  Audenshaw Dynamo 3
Red Star Mossley 2  Marine 2
Spartak-Slavia 2  Hartlepool Petrochemical 2
Stalybridge Celtic 5  Blyth Spartans 3
Wrexham 2  Gainsborough Trinity 2

Second Division

Crystal Palace 2  Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 1
Excelsior Benelux 3  Atletico Espanol 1
Manchester Newton Heath 2  Bohemians 1
Marxist Polytechnic 3  Merthyr Tydfil 0
Newcastle Blue Star 2  Caledonia Thistle 1
Sheffield Wednesday 3  Inter-Italiano 1
South Liverpool Red Star 4  Bradford Park Avenue 2
Torpedo Tranmere 3  Hendon Hotspur 2

 

The goals rained down at leaders Liverpool St Helens, where the home team deluged Audenshaw Dynamo by 8 - 3, a result all the more astonishing considering the visitors, courtesy of a quick two-goal salvo just before half-time, turned an earlier deficit into a 3 - 2 interval advantage, defending reasonably under sustained pressure from the Saints - eager to return to winning ways after last week’s first defeat in nine at Burnley - and counter-attacking with lethal efficiency. Following the break, however, Audenshaw’s dynamism deserted them and they imploded, withering in the face of the renewed onslaught and allowing St Helens to ruthlessly rack-up a further six goals without reply: the stuff of which champions are quite possibly made?

A similar margin of victory, with only slightly fewer goals, as Hungaria, victims of a seven-goal concession to a rampant Marine last Saturday, this time out performed an impressive volte-face and put Locomotive Crewe Alexandra to the very same sword, subjecting their unfortunate opponents to a 7 - 2 ‘revenge’ beating every bit as merciless as that suffered by themselves: the predatory Istvan Kovacz helped himself to four of the Magyars’ total.

Also in the goals but more closely shading a total of eight by 5 - 3 were Stalybridge Celtic, consequently moving up to second in the table and nipping Blyth Spartans recent revival in the bud in the process.

A week on from their thrashing of Hungaria, Marine found themselves under the cosh and were mostly outplayed by Red Star Mossley - unbeaten in four league and cup matches under new boss Tony Mucklethwaite - but the Crosbyites managed to rescue a point from an apparently hopeless position as last-throw-of-the-dice supersub Tegwyn Prothero’s late, late brace scraped a 2 - 2 draw from two goals down: again, such resilience, or the ability to conjure something from seemingly nothing, might suggest that the Mariners are not without certain of the requisite championship-winning credentials too, even if they have dropped a place to third (they are, after all, level with Stalybridge and only a point behind St Helens).

In matters at the wrong end of the table, Dynamo Burnley’s epic comeback 3 - 2 victory over Northwich Victoria courtesy of 86th, 89th and 90th minute strikes to recover a two-goal deficit elevated them from second-bottom to above both Crewe and Audenshaw, adding even more insult to the injury inflicted by the pair’s crushing defeats, with the Alex replacing Burnley in the relegation berth above Hartlepool Petrochemical, who remain firmly anchored at the basement despite a rare point earned in a worthy 2 - 2 draw at Spartak-Slavia who themselves are a little isolated in fourth, three points from third and four clear of fifth.

In the second tier, Marxist Polytechnic’s straightforward 3 - 0 beating of Merthyr Tydfil allowed the students to maintain a three-point lead at the top of the division, whilst Sheffield Wednesday replaced Bohemians in second place, prevailing 3 - 1 over Inter-Italiano, a first win in four, as Bohs lost at Manchester Newton Heath, their first reverse following a four-game winning streak. Torpedo Tranmere followed up their stirring Cup second replay triumph over Dynamo Burnley with a 3 - 2 last-minute edging of Hendon Hotspur to arrest a sequence of three successive league losses to move back within two points of Bohemians.

Of those fighting to remain in the Alliance, South Liverpool Red Star’s renaissance continued with an impressive 4 - 2 defeat of Bradford Park Avenue, affording them the luxury of moving out of the bottom four, Caledonia Thistle slipping into the danger zone instead following their loss at Newcastle Blue Star. Excelsior Benelux also boosted their survival hopes by beating last-placed Atletico Espanol 2 - 1, keeping the pot boiling nicely on what is sure to remain a close-run situation at the wrong end of the table.

 



 







Matchday #19: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Audenshaw Dynamo 1  Northwich Victoria 2
Blyth Spartans 2  Liverpool St Helens 1
Excelsior Marlow 3  Wrexham 2
Gainsborough Trinity 4  Spartak-Slavia 0
Hartlepool Petrochemical 1  Stalybridge Celtic 3
Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 2  Dynamo Burnley 2
Manchester Central 3  Red Star Mossley 5
Marine 7  Hungaria 1

Second Division

Atletico Espanol 3  Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 2
Bohemians 2  Crystal Palace 1
Bradford Park Avenue 1  Excelsior Benelux 1
Caledonia Thistle 3  Manchester Newton Heath 2
Hendon Hotspur 4  Sheffield Wednesday 2
Inter-Italiano 1  South Liverpool Red Star 5
Marxist Polytechnic 2  Torpedo Tranmere 1
Merthyr Tydfil 1  Newcastle Blue Star 0

 

 

A return to league action today after the Cup assumed centre-stage last weekend.

In the Championship, leaders Liverpool St Helens fell to defeat, their first in nine matches, surprisingly at Blyth Spartans and, to make matters worse, to a last-minute goal: for the victors, it was a second successive league win, enabling them to edge a little further clear of the bottom two although the Spartans are by no means out of the danger zone.

The last time St Helens lost, Marine thrashed them 7 - 1 in the Liverpool outskirts derby, and coincidentally Crosby’s finest were at it again today, Hungaria being the victims of just such a pasting, enabling the free-scoring Mariners to hit the 60-goal mark for the season so far and, more importantly, move level on points with Saints. Only one behind are Stalybridge Celtic, following their straightforward 3- 1 win at hapless Hartlepool Petrochemical - had the reigning champions packed their shooting boots with them on their trip to the north-east, they could easily have chalked-up a Marine-like scoreline, such was the level of superiority they exercised over their opponents, but Celtic had obviously used up some their goals quota in the preceding midweek Cup replay stroll against Sheffield Wednesday.

Fourth-placed Spartak-Slavia took a comprehensive 4 - 0 beating at Gainsborough but despite their impressive triumph Trinity still dropped from fifth to seventh as Northwich Victoria and Red Star Mossley overtook them by each earning three points from away victories, respectively 2 - 1 at Audenshaw Dynamo and 5 - 3 in a rip-roaring old-school derby at Manchester Central which, in addition to the eight goals, saw four players dismissed for various offences, both teams ending a couple of players short of a full complement. Having successfully negotiated a tricky Cup commitment against Second Division leaders Marxist Polytechnic, albeit narrowly after requiring a replay, new manager and former playing hero Tony Mucklethwaite has enjoyed an unbeaten start to his tenure in the Mossley hot seat and will be hoping the level of consistency so far achieved under his watch - the lack of which ultimately led to the downfall of the previous incumbent - continues. The Mossley faithful and indeed the footballing fraternity in general will be hoping Mucklethwaite enjoys a measure of success in helming his local club as some compensation for his career on the pitch being brought to a premature conclusion by injury caused by an accident at home, slipping on a goldfish hoicked from its bowl onto the floor by his pet cat Trotsky.

Elsewhere, Excelsior Marlow moved level on points with Wrexham in mid-table following their last-gasp 3 - 2 victory over the Welshmen, overturning a two-goal half-time deficit in the process, whilst second- and third-bottom Dynamo Burnley and Locomotive Crewe Alexandra fought out a feisty, topsy-turvy 2 - 2 draw at the latter’s home, each team at one stage holding a goal lead, leaving the league table placings unchanged but at least drawing level on points with Audenshaw.

 

Not unduly inconvenienced by their Cup replay defeat at Mossley despite the disappointment of running the Championship side so close over the course of both matches only to lose out deep into extra time of the re-match, Marxist Polytechnic cemented their position at the top of the Second Division by defeating another of their promotion rivals in the form of Torpedo Tranmere, a late strike proving decisive in an encounter both highly-skilled and hard-fought. Despite a third consecutive league defeat that leaves them four points shy of second place, and their ongoing involvement in a Cup battle with Dynamo Burnley, with a second replay due this coming Wednesday, Tranmere showed enough in defeat to suggest they still might feature prominently in the promotion shake-up. With Sheffield Wednesday also extending their own winless league run to three matches - although the first of those at least yielded a point - in a 4 - 2 defeat at Hendon Hotspur, Bohemians took advantage of these falterings to climb to second courtesy of a fourth league win in succession, the latest 2 - 1 against Crystal Palace.

One of the more remarkable results of the day was South Liverpool Red Star’s 5 - 1 dismantling of Inter-Italiano on the latter’s own patch, a sublime and deadly counter-attacking performance by South bringing them a first league win in six matches that, but for Caledonia Thistle’s 3 - 2 defeat of Manchester Newton Heath, would have propelled them out of the bottom four, each of whom will be relegated back to the provinces come the season’s end. Of those seemingly in most danger of demotion, Atletico Espanol pulled level on points, finally achieving double figures, with Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo after emerging victorious by 2 - 1 in the battle of the basement duo, a highly contentious goal deep into stoppage time finally separating the teams.