2 Enjoy expert HR and health & safety support to get you back to business Whether you need to manage furlough, stay COVID secure, or make tough HR choices for your business, Peninsula’s here to keep you safe and successful, whatever challenge you face: • HR & Employment Law • Staff Wellbeing • Health & Safety • Payroll Advice Get 10 % off any of the PENINSULA services 0808 145 3388 Quote: peninsula-uk.comSalford City vs Colchester United www.salfordcityfc.co.ukSALFORD01 3 HONOURS Eccles & District League Division 2 1955-56, 1959-60 Eccles & District League Division 3 1958-59 Manchester League Division 1 1968-69 Manchester League Premier Division 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1978-79 Northern Premier League Division 1 North 2014-15 Northern Premier League Play-Off Winners 2015-16 National League North 2017-18 National League Play-Off Winners 2018-19 Lancashire FA Amateur Cup 1971, 1973, 1975 Manchester FA Challenge Trophy 1975, 1976 Manchester FA Intermediate Cup 1977, 1979 NWCFL Challenge Cup 2006 16. Salford City vs Colchester United CLUB ROLL President Dave Russell Chairman Karen Baird 5 9 Secretary Andy Giblin WELLENS Richie REPORTS Match Committee Pete Byram, Ged Carter, Barbara Gaskill, Terry Gaskill, Ian Malone, Frank McCauley, Paul Raven, George Russell, Bill Taylor, Alan Tomlinson, Dave Wilson Shop Manager Tony Sheldon Media Zarah Connolly, Ryan Deane, Will Moorcroft Photography Charlotte Tattersall, Howard Harrison 13 21 First Team Manager Richie Wellens VISITORS The PROGRAMMES Foundation 92 GK Coach Carlo Nash Kit Manager Paul Rushton Physio Dave Rhodes Club Doctor Dr. Mubin Ibrahim Sport Science Youl Mawene Performance Analysis Ross Duncan Director of Football Chris Casper Programme printed by MatchDay Creative WATCH TODAY’S MATCH here 4 We’ve been voted ‘Uswitch Most Popular Broadband Provider of the Year’ for the second year running. Salford City vs Colchester United www.salfordcityfc.co.uk 5 Richie Wellens “we now have three home games in a row and an opportunity to start rolling, building on the positives from saturday.” Good evening everyone and thank you for your two inches lower and fires through the back of the support of tonight’s re-arranged game against net. The conditions were difficult and we dealt with Colchester United. Postponements are always them much better than Oldham, but we could have the last thing that anyone wants with all the dealt with the goals a bit more convincingly and hard work and preparation that goes into getting that’s what we have to work on. games on still, even behind closed doors, but they are challenges and obstacles that we have There is no doubting that everyone in this changing to deal with. room wants to win promotion, at this moment it is there for anyone in the league to seize and as Thankfully we have managed to get both this game I feel like I’m repeating, we just need to find that and the Cambridge game re-arranged quite soon consistency and put a run together over 10-12 after the original dates so we don’t fall too far games or more. Postponements don’t help that, behind with fixtures, and actually it seems that most but it is one of those things we have to deal with as clubs have caught up and nearly everybody is at do other teams in the division. We now have three about the same point so game-to-game we know home games in a row and an opportunity to start where we stand. rolling, building on the positives from Saturday. As I said after Saturday’s game, it was devastating Thanks to Colchester for helping to get the game not to take anything from Oldham after the on this soon, and to the staff, players and directors performance we put in and even a draw would we wish you a safe return journey tonight. have been disappointing but there’s only so much that falls for you sometimes and on another day Come on Salford! Tom James scores twice, Richie Towell’s shot is We’ve been voted ‘Uswitch Most Popular Broadband Provider of the Year’ for the second year running. 6 Every business needs a Champion Against a backdrop of COVID-19, your accountant should go beyond just compliance to deliver a complete advisory role. At Champion, we are one of our clients’ greatest assets, supporting individuals, businesses and their teams in a collaborative partnership. Speak to one of our 0161 703 2500 experts today. www.linkedin.com/company/ Offices in Manchester (HQ), Chester, champion-accountants Blackpool and Preston @ChampionAccount [email protected] www.championgroup.co.uk Salford City vs Colchester United www.salfordcityfc.co.uk 7 Frankly Speaking... As I settle down for the second time in three weeks to pen a few words for a league game against Colchester United I begin to wonder if I have inadvertently become an extra in the film ‘Groundhog Day’. Unfortunately, I can’t regurgitate what I had written for the original fixture as I re-worked that for the Harrogate Town match! Luckily for the Essex-based club weather there was always a section running along the Every business conditions here at the Peninsula Stadium were touchline in front of the old Nevile Road stand and poor enough to enable the plug to be pulled in stretching onto the pitch for about 20 feet that was enough time to prevent the Us from travelling to always the last to thaw out. needs a the North West. That though wasn’t the case for Cambridge United last Tuesday. The sun simply never managed to get above the stand to do its work in time for a three o’clock Champion Nobody likes to have a game called off at short kick off. By half time on evening games players notice, in fact I don’t like to have a game called off running down that flank could sound like a herd of at all. But pitches do seem to be suffering badly elephants given the underfoot conditions! this season. Over the years some grounds across the leagues have had a poor reputation for the If, like me, you’ve been watching the EFL Highlights standard of their playing surface and its inability to programme on the Quest television channel this hold out against whatever climate conditions were season (and I know presenter Colin Murray isn’t Against a backdrop of COVID-19, your accountant thrown at it. everyone’s cup of tea!) you surely will have been noticing the deteriorating playing surfaces to be should go beyond just compliance to deliver a The pitch at Moor Lane never really fell into that found at a lot of grounds. I won’t mention names category. With a natural base of sand just a few because there will, I’m sure, be good reasons and inches down, the surface always drained well. A logical explanations why this is the case. complete advisory role. waterlogged pitch was never really a problem for us. I can only recollect a solitary occasion when Premier Division grounds always look immaculate heavy rainfall in the couple of hours prior to kick off when the camera is viewing the pitch from a brought about a postponement. distance but close-ups tend to give a different At Champion, we are one of our clients’ greatest picture – there’s not as much grass as you thought. Surprisingly, water retention began to be a problem And that’s at clubs with more ground staff and more assets, supporting individuals, businesses and the more resources the club put into ‘improving’ the pitch financial resources than you would find at, for quality of the playing surface. It was as if the extra instance, a Sky Bet League Two club. their teams in a collaborative partnership. treatments the pitch was receiving was changing the chemical makeup of the soil. Then with the But it isn’t simply about available money and ‘rebuild’ of the ground allied with the natural slope resources. Some clubs need to share their facility of the pitch, and probably assisted by the concrete to help make ends meet resulting in more matches foundations for the various stands, a couple of and there’s just so much rain a pitch can cope with ‘problem’ areas started to appear along with – and we’ve been having our fair share of rain! rainwater gathering in quantity the length of the Speak to one of our 0161 703 2500 Nevile Road side of the ground. But I’m no scientist experts today. so maybe that’s a load of baloney! www.linkedin.com/company/ Now, low temperatures and frost resulting in a Offices in Manchester (HQ), Chester, champion-accountants frozen pitch was something different. Over the Blackpool and Preston winter months when the temperature would drop @ChampionAccount [email protected] www.championgroup.co.uk 8 Salford City vs Colchester United www.salfordcityfc.co.uk 9 Oldham Athletic - 2 Salford City - 1 Boundary Park 30/01/2021 Sky Bet League Two Possession 53% 47% Oldham Athletic Salford City Shots 1. Lawlor 1. Hladký 12 13 2. Clarke 2. James 3. Borthwick-Jackson (Andrade 90+4’) Shots On Target 4. Jombati 3. I.Touray 11. Grant (Hunter 90+4’) 16. Ntambwe 5. Eastham (c) 10 5 (Keillor-Dunn 63’) 6. Clarke 18. McAleny 16. Turnbull Corners 21. Hilßner 17. Towell 23. Adams (c) (Lowe 68’) 6 3 24. Bahamboula (76) 18. Threlkeld 25. McCalmont (Thomas-Asante 81’) Fouls Committed (Piergianni 90+3’) 24. Gotts 25. Coutts 4 9 40. Henderson (9) Yellow Cards Substitutes Substitutes 1 1 33. Bilboe 31.