Town selected to play their part in ‘Groundhop’
RUNCORN TOWN are delighted to be chosen as one of the six clubs who will make up the first-ever Halmark Security League Groundhop next Easter.
With the ever-increasing prices at Premier League grounds, ‘Groundhopping’ has risen in popularity over the last couple of seasons.
The term refers to football supporters who ‘hop’ from ground to ground each week instead of watching one particular team, week in week out.
This popularity has led to several companies organising formal weekends doing this on a more formal basis, with GroundhopUK – who the Hallmark Security League have teamed with to do this – the UK’s leading company in this field.
They liaise with leagues to stagger kick-off times on a particular weekend, as well as booking transport between games and hotels for supporters who wish to take part.
The Groundhop Weekend will take place at Easter, with six games in the league taking part.
Easter Sunday (16 April) will see Ashton Athletic, St Helens Town and Runcorn Town play home games, with West Didsbury & Chorlton, Maine Road and Atherton Collieries doing so the next day.
Elsewhere at the club, Chris Herbert’s new look squad is almost nearing its completion with the capture of Josh Maguire.
Maguire joins the club after being recommended by the David Campbell Soccer Academy in Liverpool, where Town’s head coach, John Keegan, is the head of coaching.
Maguire is only 17, and is very highly thought of at his age group throughout the county.
Town boss, Herbert, said: “Josh is a tenacious little player, who is comfortable at right-back or as a centre midfielder. He is very brave and comfortable on the ball for his age, and comes highly recommended.
“He is another who’s attitude has been great during pre season, particularly his willing to listen. At just 17 himself, I firmly believe that the likes of Josh and Jack Irlam (who also signed this weekend) are the future of Runcorn Town Football Club.
“We want the best youngsters around to come to this club, and in Jack and Josh we have two of the best youngsters already. I cannot wait to see how they progress now.”
Meanwhile, Town will have a good following in their first game of the 2016-17 season away to Pontefract Collieries in the FA Cup extrapreliminary round a week on Saturday, with the coach to the game now fully booked.
The club are putting together a standby list in case of cancellations. If you are interested in going on this list, please contact Alan Bennett at the club.
More news from the Pavilions club including the re-signing of midfielder Jack Irlam and a match report from last Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Colwyn Bay on page 58.