Southport 1 Dale 2
Dale returned from the Scouse Seaside with a victory in their first friendly match on English soil in what was an entertaining work out for Steve Eyre's men.
No point doing a normal report for a game like this (or most of the games in the past season obviously), but a few bits that stemmed from this game.
Our team throughout the afternoon was as follows (I think): Howard, Darby (Fagbola), Widdowson, Trotman (Holness), Twaddle, Jarret (Marshall), Kennedy (Tutte), Jones (Gray), Adams, Grimes (Hackney), O'Grady (Akpa Akpro).
Dale took the lead in the second half, when Ashley Grimes flicked home a Paul Marshall free kick. The home side equalised through a clear penalty that the ref seemed unwilling to award, before a superb lob by Simon Hackney secured the win for Dale.
Few observations and thoughts taken from this afternoon:
* Neal Trotman has the potential to be a wonderful signing. He slotted in wonderfully at the back, and seemed to have a bit of everything. Very vocal throughout and when the ball hits his head, it goes miles.
* Ashley Grimes looks to be another fantastic capture. He seems to have wonderful vision and if our players start gambling that touch more, he'll be able to pull the strings and allow us to take full advantage. Great header for the opening goal.
* Marc Twaddle looked somewhat unsteady at centre half and may find himself pushed out by Marcus Holness and it could be that he returns to his left back position for regular football with Dale.
* Paul Marshall provided both goals with two excellent balls. No doubting his quality on the ball, but he seems to have a pedestrian style that might not see him get the opportunity in the hustle and bustle in League One to create the opportunities that he did today. There's something there.
* Jason Jarret played very well in front of the back four. Jamie Redknapp would no doubt come out with that ridiciulous phrase about it being the quarterback position. Shut up Jamie. The back point of a midfield diamond, and he did that job very well. He was many people's man of the match for the first half.
* The Southport number 10 has bags of energy but was very lucky to stay on the pitch after two or three challenges that were ridiculous for a friendly. He could have had no complaints had he been sent off or been the subject of an enforced substitution. There was talk that we've been linked with this lad and it could have been a case of him being over enthusiastic.
* Bizarre change by Southport at half time. A whole new team in a completely different kit. It wasn't even the same shade of yellow.
* Rather amusing moment in the 2nd half when the ice baths were assembled pitch side by Jack the Kitman only to see 2 or 3 Dale supporters strip off and dive in.
* Good number of Dale supporters in attendance - somewhere between 300 and 400 I would estimate at.
What to read next:
U's Vs Accrington Match Preview As the round of matches over the festive period draws to a close, we have the visit of Accrington Stanley on that most rare of events in our football history, a Sunday afternoon kick-off. If you filter out play-off and cup games, in the league this accounts for just 25 games since we were formed, seven won, six drawn and 12 lost. As you would imagine, Sunday games are generally focussed around Christmas and the New Year, or more recently, Sky-mandated final games of the season. It’s been a pretty positive holiday schedule for the U’s too, eight points from four games, and with other results often going our way, we’re now just two places and three points outside the play-offs.
U's Vs MK Dons Match Preview Happy New Year U’s fans! After two hard fought 1-1 draws away from home across the festive period we kick off the New Year with a home match against Milton Keynes. Tickets look to be selling well, although not in the West Stand it seems, so should be a decent crowd providing MK bring more than their normal coach load. I know it doesn’t count for anything but the calendar year League Two table has us in fifth with 72 points from 46 matches played so 2025 hasn’t been a bad year to be a U’s fan.
Gillingham Vs U's Match Preview First and foremost, I hope you are all having a pleasant Christmas break relaxing with family and friends, and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. This will be our final match of 2025, with a trip to Priestfield to face old adversary Gillingham, our second game against them this month and our third this season. This will be our 112th game in all competitions against the Gills, a relationship that started with a Ted Davis U’s side winning 2-0 at Layer Road on 27th August 1938. At the final whistle tomorrow we will also be at the halfway point of the season, so considering at the end of September we were 20th, plenty of optimism for the second half of the season.
Crawley Vs U's Match Preview Merry Christmas U’s fans! Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
U's Vs Newport Match Preview And so, Danny and Nicky enter their second century of games managing the U’s, at home to struggling Newport – let’s hope it starts a bit better than the first century finished. There won’t be many games we score three and lose, trouble is there’ll be even fewer where we concede four and win. That being said, I couldn’t fault the first hour of the Salford game, with the U’s in control of a game against good opposition, and on a typically heavy pitch. Then we kind of fell apart, certainly defensively, helped in no small part by a masterclass from ex-U’s Luke Garbutt (how is he only in League 2?). Credit must also go to 250+ of the faithful, a long trip starting at stupid o’clock – they deserved more than that for their support.