By David Wilkinson
A trip to this part of Cheshire used to be a regular one, Winnington Park, our hosts adjacent neighbours, are now sadly a shadow of their former-selves. Northwich overtook them some years ago, winning promotion into this league before Covid, which did them no favours. They had a tough start, but there was no relegation for them, and then did a lot better last season. This season, for some reason, has been a struggle for them. They had a competitive game at Priory Park, losing 38 – 17, according to their South African skipper they made too many mistakes that afternoon. Since then they seem to have gone downhill for some reason, winning only one game and getting thumped up at Penrith last week. They will want to put on a much better performance in front of their home supporters on Saturday.
Maul, attack and defence training session from Reece Davies
Macclesfield’s form is the polar opposite, with only one loss this season against joint leaders Rossendale. Sitting where they do, the players need no incentive; every game is a must-win 5-pointer to stay at the top. Saturday brings a different challenge, Macclesfield has not won at Northwich since 2021, last season losing home and away, and their players will be fuelled with the optimism that maybe they can turn us over again. But they will need to get past our defence, on Saturday Macc made 195 tackles with a 96% success rate, 11 of the team made 100% successful tackles.
40 players took part in the squad training session on Thursday – strength in depth on show
These were Darren Lamonds’ thoughts after another huge training session: “Whilst we have been forced to make some changes (injuries to Rhys Davies and Tom Burden) it gives us an opportunity for other starters, Josh DeGroot, who has now fully recovered from injury and Laingy who has gone very well in training and came off the bench well last week. I’m really looking forward to having all the backs coming back together, with Tom Morton back in the match-day squad. Northwich have threats, throughout the team, if we give them a chance they will take it, and they’ll have a boisterous crowd for that extra niggle. That said the boys will be looking to doing a job, and getting their first win at Northwich”.
It’s a 2.15 pm kick-off at Moss Farm on Saturday, get there early to sample their new facilities, the team is: 1. Dan Percival, 2. Ollie Longmore, 3. James Cross, 4. Josh DeGroot, 5. Harry Harding, 6. Brendan Berry 7. Phil Laing, 8. James Oliver – Captain, 9. Dan Martin, 10. Charlie Attis, 11. Terence Babarinsa, 12. Harry Blackwell, 13. Harry Oliver, 14. Sam Adu, 15. John O’Donnell, 16. Samir Tahraoui, 17. Elliot Alston, 18. Tom Morton.
