NSSCL CLUBS MAKE MARKET MOVES FOR NEW CAMPAIGN
NORTH Staffs and South Cheshire League clubs have been putting the finishing touches to their squads for this summer’s action.
The league’s transfer deadline for moves between NSSCL clubs passed on Sunday, with a host of players opting for new challenges in 2021.
Premier Division Checkley have been busy with Bedfordshire batsman James Kettleborough and Sheffield Collegiate’s ex-yorkshire wicketkeeper-batsman Simon Guy making moves to Four Trees.
Champions Porthill Park, who have won four of the last five titles, have also added depth to their squad.
The most notable arrival is allrounder Matthew Coxon, who has switched from top-flight rivals Stone SP.
Meakins, bidding to challenge for honours once more, have signed Staffordshire left-arm spinner Paul Byrne from Birmingham League side Walsall.
In Division Two, Norton in Hales have welcomed several new faces, as well as registering Leicestershire allrounder Ben Mike for the summer.
The 2020 campaign was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which saw a shortened 11-game league season in operation with no promotion or relegation.
However, the 2021 schedule is set to take place as planned, with a new format being introduced in to the NSSCL.
Half of the matches will be played as straight win-lose, with the remaining 50 per cent incorporating the traditional draw.
The cup competitions, which were not played last summer, also return with the Talbot Cup, Talbot Shield, Twenty20 Cup and Twenty20 Plate on the agenda. The league season is due to start on Saturday, April 24.
PLAYERS SIGNED FOR THE 2021 SEASON ALSAGER
Waqas Ahmed (club member); Paul Newnes (Bignall End); Ben Turner (Leek).
ASHCOMBE PARK
Haroon Mahmood (Kidsgrove); Hamza Siddique (Cheadle); James Lawton (club member); Josh Luznyj (club member); Tom Luznyj (club member); Harry Mellor (club member); Hugh Phillips-bland (club member); Peter Farrow (club member); Hugo Thompson (club member); George Neale (club member).
AUDLEM
Craig Holding (club member); Rungano Manonge (club member); Ricky Clorley (club member).
AUDLEY
Darren Rogers (Crewe); Richard Redman (Porthill Park); Niall Redman (Porthill Park); Recordo Gordon (Walmley).
BAGNALL NORTON
Joe Bridgewater (Whitmore); Freddie Doorbar (Longton); Nick Buxton (Endon). BARLASTON
George Hawbrook (Stone SP); Bilal Hussain (Little Stoke).
BETLEY
Ryan Hancock (Kidsgrove); Josh Allman (Crewe); Paul Allman (Crewe); Warren Mellor (Audley).
BIGNALL END
Adam Simcox (Betley); Ali Azmat (Prestwich); Ben Dixon (Alsager); Seb Hopwood (Audley); Mohammed Saleem (Hem Heath); Harron Shah (Moddershall & Oulton); Ali Shah (Moddershall & Oulton).
BLYTHE
Callum Dreher (Meir Heath); Jonathan Dreher (Meir Heath); Izaak Dreher (club member); Monty Garratt (Moddershall & Oulton); Sebastian Garratt (Moddershall & Oulton); Emmerson Garratt (Moddershall & Oulton).
BURSLEM
Kieran Harrison (Sandyford); Zen Malik (Blythe); Joshua Rhodes (Bignall End); Andrew Hurd (Hem Heath); Phillip Robins (Sandyford).
CAVERSWALL
Evan Bradford (Moddershall & Oulton); Chris Ball (Blythe).
CHEADLE
Dale Heath (Meir Heath); Ali Khan (category 3); Alfie Bonehill (club member); Sam Cliffe (club member).
CHECKLEY
James Kettleborough (Haywood); Tom Moulton (Moddershall & Oulton); Clark Haddrell (Rolleston); Seb Smith (Newcastle & Hartshill);
Simon Guy (Sheffield Collegiate).
CHURCH EATON
Toby Horton (Stafford).
ECCLESHALL
Daniel Byatt (Little Stoke); Dave Ecclestone (Little Stoke); Colin Phillips (club member); Greg Adams (club member); Ahsan Tariq (Ilkeston Rutland).
ELWORTH
Willoughby Happe (Betley); Ryan Sloan (Woodhouses).
ENDON
Kevin Cockerton (Knypersley); Jack Bourne (Bignall End).
HANFORD
Jordan Stanway (Endon); Abeed Akhtar (Kidsgrove); Adeel Mahmood (Kidsgrove); Zahir Ahmad (Moddershall & Oulton); Faisal Tahir (club member).
HEM HEATH
Ben Pugh (Little Stoke); Steve Pugh (Little Stoke); Sajakat Ali (Woore); Nathan Bennett (Stone SP); Daniel Jones (Moddershall & Oulton); Jack Jones (Moddershall & Oulton).
KIDSGROVE
Adam Shaw (Bignall End); Sean Stride (club member); Christopher Ashman (club member).
KNYPERSLEY
Jake Coxon (Meakins).
LEYCETT
Patrick Wilkes (Betley); Rajpal Beniwal (category 3); David Shirley (Sandyford).
LITTLE STOKE
Ben Green (Blythe); Dan Green (Blythe); Tom Hughes (Blythe); Tim Twigg (Moddershall & Oulton); Mohammad Nadim (Moddershall & Oulton); Zahid Mahmood (Moddershall & Oulton); Paul Green (Blythe).
LONGTON
Richard Williams (Checkley); Josh Clayton (Wedgwood).
MEAKINS
Paul Byrne (Walsall).
MEIR HEATH
David Hassall (Sandon); Anwar Hussain (Hanford); Adeel Khan (Burslem).
MODDERSHALL & OULTON
Tharaka Jayawardane (Stafford); Robert Price (Stone SP); Kalinga Llyanage (Maritme).
NEWCASTLE & HARTSHILL
Liam Williams (Betley); Chris Machin (Wedgwood).
NORTON IN HALES
Darren Long (Kidsgrove); Adeel Khalid (Kidsgrove); James Pringle (Kidsgrove); Anthony Sheeran (Kidsgrove); Ben Mike (category 2). OAKAMOOR
Jonathan Clowes (Cheadle); Tom Gerrard (Blythe); Charlie Allcock (Checkley); Carl Allcock (Checkley).
ONNELEY
Darren Walker (Leycett); Henry Saklatvala (Acton Reynald).
PORTHILL PARK
Mathew Coxon (Stone SP); Dave Nolan (Sandbach); Harvey Collins (Little Stoke).
RODE PARK & LAWTON
Martin Dawson (Crewe).
SANDBACH
Stuart Burrows (Tamworth).
SANDON
Andy Wootton (Bignall End); John Sebastian (club member); Sukesh Shetty (club member); Steve Greatholder (Bignall End).
SANDYFORD
Joe Ward (Kidsgrove); Ryan Davis (Kidsgrove); Jake Taylor (Knypersley); Ben Bennett (Kidsgrove); Aunn Shah (Moddershall & Oulton); Muhammad Naveed (Milford Hall).
SILVERDALE
Charles Chivu (Stafford); Brad Evans (Fordhouses); Alex Mcchristie (Fordhouses).
STAFFORD
Arif Muhammad (Mote); Dave Foster (Blackheath); Mohamedanas Patel (category 3).
STONE SP
George Harding (Crewe); Chanaka Ekanayake (Eccleshall); Mark Hulbert (club member); Jack Abbott (Little Stoke); Toby Hough (Little Stoke); Micky Chandler (Moddershall & Oulton).
WEDGWOOD
Darren Johnson (Caverswall); Mark Jones (Ashcombe Park); Gareth Kinsey (Sandyford); Mckenzie Jones (Ashcombe Park); Robert Bagnall (Moddershall & Oulton); Ben Myatt (Moddershall & Oulton); Oliver Bennett (Church Eaton); Shea Moore (Oakamoor).
WHITMORE
James Weighell (Burnmore); Samuel Beeston (club member); Shikhar Tiwari (club member). WOOD LANE
Joel Brierley (Bignall End); Robert Price (Moddershall & Oulton); Sam Yorke (club member).
WHO would be a footballer manager? Hailed a genius widely on social media after just 25 seconds of a seemingly unwinnable away game when your decision to go for a high early press pays off handsomely with an opening goal, by the end of the game you’re being vilified for failing to hang on to a lead no-one ever expected you to have.
It’s a tough gig; made all the more difficult when you’re dealing with a legacy as toxic as the one Michael O’neill has had to at Stoke. While defeats after taking the lead always feel doubly disappointing, Saturday’s needs to be put into context. Firstly, it was a performance that was a country mile better than that at Barnsley in, arguably, a far more important game as the Tykes are our direct opponent in terms of position in the table. Before Wednesday night’s game they were one place below Stoke in 10th. Now City sit in that position and the south Yorkshiremen, after another win on Saturday, are a point outside the playoffs with a game in hand. So, this could prove to have been a pivotal week for Stoke in terms of whether there is any hope of getting into the fringes of the promotion picture. At Brentford, Stoke were the better team for the first half, delivering the defensive side of O’neill’s plan perfectly. It really was an encouraging performance, fuelled by Tommy Smith’s early pressing inside the opposition penalty area, which won the ball back and present Jacob Brown with the chance to finish.
But the questions at halftime were fairly obvious: could Stoke keep that up, and would Brentford be so anaemic?
The answer to both was a clear ‘no’. And here is where the legacy comes in. Well before O’neill arrived at Stoke the recruitment policy was all wrong. Expensive players, on longterm contracts, effectively placed millstones around future managers’ necks, unless they delivered. And they haven’t. Contrast that with Brentford’s policy.
On Saturday the winning goal in their turnaround victory was scored by Ivan Toney, a £5m recruit from Peterborough, who had been scoring goals for fun at the level below Stoke (his record at the Posh was almost exactly a goal every other game) and, given his age in the transfer window of January 2019 at 22, was ripe for signing. Instead Stoke, under new manager Nathan Jones, opted to spend £7.2m on Sam Vokes, a striker who rarely scored for Burnley at the level above Stoke (his record there was almost exactly a goal every four games), and whose age at that point was 29. Vokes came on against Brentford as Stoke sought an equaliser and City looked about as threatening as a kitten romping about on a white fluffy pillow with white feathers billowing around. Conversely, the mobile, quick-thinking, effervescent Toney seized the one halfchance which came his way with a clinical finish, which gave Angus Gunn no chance. Brentford’s recruitment team is rightly lauded for its use of data and statistics, but that one didn’t take much deep knowledge to get right.
Equally, legs in midfield became an issue around 10 minutes into the second half as Stoke’s ageing ones tired, while Brentford’s upped their game.
But we’ve known that for ages.
Michael O’neill has now been in the hotseat for long enough that he has to start to bear the weight of criticism for continued failings. Just not for creating the problems in the first place.
The fact that he hasn’t yet does, though, have a lot to do with the contracts of those expensive players the club is still trying to divest itself of.
Until that can happen, we are destined to be a middle, maybe uppermiddle, Championship club, because even this, very good, manager can’t get us to compete consistently with more nimble, upwardlymobile clubs like Barnsley and Brentford.
My how that last sentence hurts.