Atherton Collieries draws with Trafford and 1874 Northwich

They travel to the U Lock It Stadium on Saturday to face Witton Albion, who play a division below Colls in the Northern Premier League.

Colls will also host Widnes at the Skuna Stadium tonight, Tuesday, at 7.45pm.

Over the past week, Atherton have drawn in two warm-up games to the 2023/24 season.

A 2-2 result at Trafford followed a 1-1 night at 1874 Northwich.

David Chadwick’s Stripes started the affair at Trafford on Saturday the better of the two teams, with Lewis Mansell troubling the Trafford defence whilst Jordan Scanlon, Harvey Gregson, Nathan Caine and Sidi Sanogo-Fofana controlled the midfield, testing but never troubling a reliable Liam Lovell in goal for Trafford.

However, against the run of play it was Trafford who claimed the first blow. A cross into the box was deemed offside by the Colls defence, but was however converted by Max Hazeldine for an opening goal.

A second soon followed. Hazeldine once again proved problematic, setting up Matty Barlow with an early cross which was dutifully prodded home.

Colls’ latest signing, Mwiya Malumo, provided reinforcements for the front-line, replacing Lewis Mansell in the dying embers of the first half, and was unlucky not to convert with his first touch.

The forward flicked a long ball over the onrushing Lovell, narrowly high of the Trafford goal.

Stripes’ persistence and hard work paid off in the second half as Nathan Caine duly pulled a goal back.

Jack Evans, pushed forward into midfield following the interval, combined with Jordan Scanlon and the ball was ultimately played through to Nathan Caine who fired home.

The momentum was now with Colls and Ben Rydel ultimately delivered a stunning equaliser that was befitting of such an entertaining afternoon’s football.

Evans and Scanlon again, two of many standouts of the Colls pre-season campaign, combined once more on the edge of the box, laying the ball off for versatile midfielder Rydel to pick out the bottom corner from range with ease.

Last week, Colls added further minutes to the bank with another hard-fought pre-season test against 1874 Northwich.

Throughout the first half, Nathan Caine and Josh Askew showcased what is developing into an exciting partnership along the left flank, with Caine coming closest to opening the scoring from a Trialist #7 cross into the box drawing a smart stop from the 74 stopper.

The opening goal soon came through Caine. The ’74 defence failed to adequately clear a Jordan Boon cross into the penalty area, with Caine comfortably collecting the loose ball and placing home from a dozen yards out.

A goalmouth scramble as Atherton Collieries square up with 1874 Northwich (Image: David Featherstone)

Following a first half in which Colls controlled the majority of play, the second developed into a much scrappier affair, with the game becoming stop-start as the Collieries physicality and resilience were tested against uncompromising opposition.

Ten minutes into the second stanza, 1874 were gifted an equaliser as an Adam Rooney back-pass from outside of the box took an unfortunate bobble over the foot of the trialist Colls’ stopper for an own goal.

As the Colls began to rotate and experiment with substitutions, 1874 began to maintain their first spell of control over the game during the middle of the second half, recording their only shot on goal from distance with 20 minutes remaining.

In the dying embers, Colls regained their foothold and began to push on for an equaliser, however ultimately late pressure was to no avail.