2017-2018 Season Review: In Numbers

Final League Position and Points
12th place with 53 points - same league position as last season but with 8 fewer points!

Home League Record
4 wins, 8 draws, 9 defeats - much worse than last season in terms of points return from our home matches

Away League Record
10 wins, 3 draws, 8 defeats - almost identical to last season

Goals Scored (in all competitions)
81 in total; 37 at home and 44 away - 21 less goals scored than last season

Sir Richard of Whyatt. Scorer of goals: 26 of them.

Goals Conceded (in all competitions)
102 in total; 51 at home and 51 away - how's that for balance!

Goals Scored Half-by-Half (in all competitions)
36 in the first half; 45 in the second

Top Scorer
Rick Whyatt with 26 in all competitions - exactly the same number as last season's top scorer Rhys Webb. Without Rick's goals we would have been 24 points worse off this season...and we would have finished bottom of the table.

Biggest Win
5-1 v Bacup Borough away from home, Hallmark Security League First Division

Bacup Borough 1-5 Cheadle Town. Chris Sherrington is happy.

Heaviest Defeat
1-8 v Stockport County at home, Cheshire Senior Cup Preliminary Round

Most Consecutive Wins
4 - that little run we put together towards the end of the season, starting with the 5-1 win at Bacup Borough through to the 2-1 win at Cammell Laird

Most Consecutive Games Unbeaten
5 - again, incorporating that little run at the end of the season, from the 3-3 draw at home v Eccleshall to the 2-1 away win at Cammell Laird

Most Consecutive Games Without a Win
8 - from the 1-1 draw and ultimate penalty shoot-out loss v Northwich Victoria at home in the NWCFL League Cup through to the 1-1 draw at home to Carlisle City

League Doubles
3 - Bacup Borough, Cammell Laird and Atherton LR (again)

Percentage of League Points Gained by Venue
40% at home and 60% of them away!

League Points Gained as a Percentage of Total Points Possible
42% - a bit of a dip from last season's 46%

Impact of Cheadle Scoring or Conceding First
Every year we highlight this because every year it is the same. Simply put if we score first then the likelihood of us getting something out of the match is significantly increased. Take a look....

What Happened When We SCORED First?

...and What Happened When We CONCEDED First?

Anything Else Worth Mentioning?

• Jake Ambrose was the second-highest scorer with 9. This was down to a late surge as 5 of those goals came in the final ten matches of the season!
• This was the first time we had failed to score v Daisy Hill. Ever.

2016-2017 Season Review: In Numbers

Final League Position and Points
12th place with 61 points

Home League Record
9 wins, 3 draws, 9 defeats

Away League Record
9 wins, 4 draws, 8 defeats

Goals Scored (in all competitions)
109 in total; 52 at home and 57 away

Goals Conceded (in all competitions)
101 in total; 51 at home and 50 away

Goals Scored Half-by-Half
48 in the first half, 61 in the second

Top Scorer
Rhys Webb with 26 goals in all competitions

Biggest Win
6-0 v Atherton LR at home, Hallmark Security League First Division; the second time in as many seasons that Atherton LR have provided us with this stat!

Heaviest Defeat
1-6 v Charnock Richard (away), Hallmark Security League First Division

Most Consecutive Wins
5 - that run at the end of the season

Most Consecutive Games Unbeaten
6 - again, that run at the end of the season from the 1-1 draw at AFC Blackpool to the final-day 3-0 win at Silsden

Most Consecutive Games Without a Win
7 - from the FA Cup loss at Trafford to the 1-4 home defeat to Widnes

League Doubles
6 - Stockport Town, Ashton Town, Atherton LR, Holker Old Boys, Daisy Hill, Silsden

Percentage of League Points Gained by Venue
49% at home and the remaining 51% away

League Points Gained as a Percentage of Total Points Possible
48% - a bit of a dip from last season's 55%

Impact of Cheadle Scoring or Conceding First
We highlighted this last season as a telling trait of ours and do so again because the stats are very telling! Simply put, if we score first then the likelihood of us getting something from the match is increased. See for yourself....

What Happened When We SCORED First?

...and What Happened When We CONCEDED First?

2016-2017 Season Review: In Words

From Penistone to Silsden: The Story of Cheadle Town 2016-2017. A play in two parts.

Act One: This Season Can't End Quick Enough

It started in the hills of West Yorkshire...

Our reward for our top-six finish the previous season was a ticket into the FA Cup competition, starting in the Extra Preliminary Round. Due to scheduling this was to be our first competitive match of the season; an odd way to literally kick things off.

After conceding within the first five minutes we came though 3-1 winners and set off on a mini FA Cup run that most clubs at our level would be more-than-happy with.

NPL Division One outfit - and giant-killers of yore - Northwich Victoria were dispatched easily in the Preliminary Round with a trip to Trafford in the 1st Qualifying Round bringing the mini-adventure to an end, but not before Mikey Sherrington had put us into the lead and given the NPL side an almighty scare.

The joy that our FA Cup exploits brought masked the frustration of a disappointing start to our league campaign.

A remarkable point at home to St Helens Town thanks to three goals in stoppage time failed to spark us into any form of consistency. Wins against Ashton Town and Chadderton were the only league victories in an August and September more marked by defeats to the division's new boys - Oswestry, Sandbach and City of Liverpool - and an inexplicable home loss to Eccleshall.

Much - far too much, perhaps - has been made on here about our record at Holker Old Boys. After finally burying the hoodoo last season we went and committed it to never-shall-be-mentioned-again history following a splendid 5-2 win.

The latter half of October would see a mini-revival with wins at Atherton LR, a draw at Litherland REMYCA and an impressive home win over Prestwich Heys but that wasn't before a 1-6 drubbing at Charnock Richard, a defeat that resulted in a lot of soul-searching in the dressing room afterwards.

As October became November we exited three cup competitions in successive matches and suffered a frustrating 2-4 reversal at St Helens Town before Ashton Town were then taken care of at Park Road and two draws claimed at AFC Blackpool and Whitchurch Alport, the latter seeing an impressive, battling performance and Dane Smith saving a penalty right at the death.

Another poor run of losses then took us into December and as we came away from Carlisle City we were languishing in the bottom half of the table with only six league wins to our name.

Act One league stats: Played 26: Won 6, Drew 5, Lost 12.

Act Two: I Don't Want This Season To End

Bacup Borough must be sick of the sight of us.

At the start of last season we snatched a 5-5 draw with a penalty some thirteen minutes into injury time (after being 1-4 down at one point) and repeated the late heroics again this season; Liam Tongue's double in stoppage time meaning we came away with a 3-2 win.

A win that set us off on a decent run right through to the season's conclusion.

Stockport Town - at that point in utter disarray - were easily beaten on Boxing Day at Park Road followed by a thoroughly deserved draw at home to Whitchurch, featuring the goal of the season from Justin Pickering, and then a 5-2 home win over Silsden.

A ill-tempered day - on and off the pitch - at Sandbach United was the only blot from that Bacup match through to mid-February as Daisy Hill, Holker and Carlisle were defeated at Park Road with our now-customary win at Eccleshall the final match in this block.

Oddly enough, what had started versus Bacup was ended versus Bacup.

A 0-1 home defeat to them started a run of four defeats that were all lost by the odd goal: away matches at Alsager, Widnes and Prestwich were all 1-2 and all three were games where we should have come away with something.

Any outside chance of the play-offs were mathematically buried by the time AFC Blackpool came to Park Road and got themselves a 2-2 draw. With five tricky-looking matches remaining, was the season going to peter out into a damp squib?

Absolutely not. Twenty goals were scored and just three conceded as five consecutive victories were notched up.

First up were Stockport Town on Good Friday. To us, just another match. To others, a chance to front-load it with "big local derby" bluster. They were left with egg on their faces as we swept them aside 5-1 in one of the most complete performances of the season.

A trip to promotion-chasing City of Liverpool was next on the Easter Monday and, with what was surely the result of the season for us, we came away with a creditable 2-1 win. Daisy Hill were then hammered 4-1 on the Wednesday to bring three matches in six days to a perfect conclusion.

On a fun afternoon at Park Road, Atherton LR were then hit for six in a match that will be remembered for Dane Smith's contribution with an away trip to Silsden for the final day seeing us round things off with a solid 3-0 win; another match that will always be remembered for Dane Smith's contribution.

Something of a curate's egg of a season. The good parts? Rhys Webb clocking up 26 goals in all competitions; the FA Cup mini-run; the bit at the end; Easter.

...and it ended in the hills of West Yorkshire.

Act Two league stats: Played 19: Won 12, Drew 2 Lost 5

2015-2016 Season Review: In Words

It may not have ended the way we wanted it to but, when all is said and done, it has been a memorable season in more ways than one.

Home Sweet Home?
If we're going to point a finger at where we could have improved matters then let's start with our home form.

Park Road - not quite the fortress we wanted it to be

Unfortunately Park Road wasn't the fortress we would have liked it to be. 7 defeats at home in the league compared to just the 3 on the road tells its own story. 61% of our league points total was gained away from Park Road.

The away form must have been good, for on Saturday 26th March 2016 we recorded our first win at Holker Old Boys for what seemed like a generation.

Play-Offs, On, Off and On Again
Although they didn't bring the desired end to our season, let's have it on record that we are a big fan of the play-offs here at Cheadle Town FC.

In the past two seasons that they have existed they have kept our season going. Without them the promotion issues would have been sewn up by late March leaving us with a handful of "dead rubbers" to trawl through at the end of the season.

As I mentioned in the match report for the play-off semi-final v Barnton, to have got there on this occasion says a lot about how far we have come under the guidance of Terry Hincks et al.

At around 4.45pm on Saturday 30th April it looked as though we could be missing out but Rick Whyatt's winning goal deep into stoppage time at Daisy Hill changed the outlook once more. Granted we still needed favours from others but the "ask" at that point wasn't as big, and the footballing gods smiled down on us for once and gave us a shot in the play-off picture.

We're confident that we can feature again next season...and going one better.

An Appetite for Destruction...
A lot of proverbial cats were kicked back home after the 2-3 defeat to Ashton Town in September. 2-0 up and absolutely coasting, despite having a man (wrongly) sent off, we inexplicably collapsed in the final ten minutes of the match and ended up going home with nothing.

The same happened again three weeks later in the FA Vase tie at Handsworth Parramore, although that game wasn't lost in the final ten minutes it was a bitterly disappointing way to go out.

The miserable mid-September to mid-October was capped by a non-performance at home to Rochdale Town where three goals were conceded without reply.

...and Character in Spades
And yet there was the 5-5 draw at Bacup Borough on the opening day of the season. 1-4 down at one point, with the result rescued some thirteen minutes into stoppage time.

And the 4-3 win at Staveley Miners Welfare in the FA Vase. 1-3 down midway through the second half, with Rick Whyatt's late winner sending us all home happy.

And the 5-3 win at Stockport Town. 3-3 until the last minute, when late goals by Luke Hincks and Chris Sherrington give us the sweetest of victories.

And the 6-3 win at Eccleshall. 1-3 down before performing a barnstorming fightback to win 6-3.

And the 2-2 home draw v Barnton, coming back from 0-2 down at half-time to claim what would turn out to be a precious point.

All matches that "the Cheadle of old" might have gone on to lose. Encouraging stuff.

Where did he come from?
If ever there was an example of somebody "coming up on the rails" in the club's goalscoring charts then have a look at what Liam Tongue did this season.

A rasping drive v Maine Road in a pre-season friendly raised a few eyebrows. That was followed by a couple v Chapel Town, also in pre-season, with Liam then not featuring in the goalscoring statistics until early November when he netted twice in the First Division Trophy tie at Irlam.

Liam Tongue. Pictured not scoring.

He chased Rick Whyatt down in impressive manner during the final nine games of the season where he netted eleven times to top the charts with 20 goals in all competitions for the club, his final act being one of his trademark thumps into the back of the net v Barnton in the play-off semi-final.

Such activity is going to attract interested parties. We sincerely hope that he stays and does the same again for us next season where he is capable of bettering his tally.

Keeping It All Together
To that end, the hard work starts now for Terry and the rest of the management team.

We have an excellent squad - we know that - but the trouble is that it won't have gone unnoticed by others.

We lost the backbone to our squad last summer and, frustratingly, lost Darryhl Mason and Chris Sherrington mid-season this time around. If we can keep the majority of this squad for next season, and add one or two new names to add a bit of strength and depth, then next season looks a very exciting prospect indeed.

Goals, Goals, Goals
The manic opening 5-5 draw at Bacup Borough should have served as an indicator.

If you came to watch us this season then there was the guarantee of goals. Not one match in all competitions ended up as a 0-0 and we only failed to score in two of them. In total we netted 102 times in all competitions, a massive gain of 29 goals on last season and the biggest total we've had for a while.

The 10-1 home victory over Atherton LR was the club's biggest home victory for a long while with the half-time score of 8-1 being the biggest interval scoreline in the club's history.

Happy New Year?
The turn of the year flung us from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other.

As everybody was tucking into their Christmas dinners we were top of the pile with a couple of points as a cushion. This was achieved on the back of three consecutive wins, once of which was away at Barnton...who would eventually go on to be promoted (via the play-offs).

That was all wiped out by mid-February as we went on a horror run. Ashton Town, Litherland REMYCA, St Helens Town and Stockport Town all came to Park Road and claimed victories, pushing us back into the play-off places.

The repair process started with a useful 2-2 draw at Hanley Town and then the 10-1 demolition of a hapless Atherton LR that set us on the way to our ultimate play-off destiny, but there's no denying the post new year slump potentially put paid to any hopes we had of automatic promotion.

Anything Else Worth Mentioning?
* Michael Sherrington surpassing his brother Chris' goal tally in only 11 games
* That win at Holker (have I mentioned that already?) and the hoodoo being buried
* Gillian Wood - our physio up-to-and-including that win at Holker. A valuable asset to the club this past season and sorely missed by all. We wish her well in her new venture back home in Norfolk.

Thank you to everybody who has read the match reports, articles, news etc on here and also engaged with us via social media, be it on Twitter or Facebook.

It may be the end of the season but that doesn't mean things come to an abrupt halt on here. We'll be reporting back from the Presentation & Awards Evening at the end of the month, giving you the key points from the NWCFL AGM that takes place in June and also letting you know about any pre-season friendlies before it all starts again in August!

2015-2016 Season Review: In Numbers

Final League Position and Points
6th place with 56 points; 10 more points than last season and 4 places better off

Home League Record
6 wins, 4 draws, 7 defeats

Away League Record
10 wins, 4 draws, 3 defeats

Goals Scored
102 in total: 44 at home, 58 away. A massive +29 goals scored on last season.

Goals Conceded
80 in total: 36 at home, 44 away. Exactly the same number conceded as last season!

Goals Scored Half-by-Half
47 in the first half, the remaining 55 in the second

Top Scorer
Liam Tongue with 20. Over half of them scored in the last 9 games of the campaign! Incredible.

Biggest Win
10-1 v Atherton LR at home, North West Counties Division One

Heaviest Defeat
We never lost a game by more than 3 goals. The instances were:
* 0-3 v Rochdale Town at home, North West Counties Division One
* 3-6 v Tranmere Rovers at home, Cheshire Senior Cup 2nd Round
* 1-4 v Irlam (away), North West Counties Division One
* 1-4 v Barnton (away), Play-Off Semi-Final

Most Consecutive Wins
A run of 3 was achieved on 3 occasions:
* From the 1-0 win at Chadderton to the 2-0 home win v Widnes in October
* From the 4-1 win at Whitchurch Alport to the 3-0 home win v Bacup Borough in November/December
* The last three games of the season, from the 3-0 away win at Northwich Manchester Villa to the 6-2 away win v Rochdale Town

Most Consecutive Games Unbeaten
A run of 5 unbeaten was achieved twice:
* The first five games of the season, from the 5-5 draw at Bacup Borough to the 4-0 win at home v Daisy Hill
* From the 4-1 win at Atherton LR to the 2-0 home win v Widnes in October

Most Consecutive Games Without a Win
6 - the horrendous start to the new year that almost derailed everything, from the 1-2 home defeat to Ashton Town through to the 2-2 draw at Hanley Town

League Doubles
4 - Atherton LR, Daisy Hill, Whitchurch Alport and Eccleshall

Percentage of League Points Gained by Venue
Quite a contrast here: 39% at home and the remaining 61% away!

League Points Gained as a Percentage of Total Points Possible
55% - a massive improvement on last season's 43%!

Impact of Cheadle Scoring or Conceding First in a Game
Perhaps the most telling statistic of them all. This has been a trait of ours for the past three or four seasons now; as you can clearly see in the graphs below, us scoring first means that we are more likely to come away from the game with a result.

What Happened When We SCORED First?

What Happened When We CONCEDED First?

The Timing of Scoring and Conceding
One thing to note here is the similarity between both charts. The fact that we score a lot of goals late on could be deemed as encouraging...but we also concede a lot late on and all.

When Did We SCORE in Our Games?

...and When Did We CONCEDE in Our Games?