STOCKTON TOWN VS PRESCOT CABLES PREVIEW
COMPETITION: Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division
DATE: Saturday 17th August, 2024
KICK-OFF: 3:00pm
ENTRY: £11 Adult, £9 Concessions, £5 11-18 year olds, £3 under-11’s
Tickets available via this link – Prescot Cables | Northern Premier League | Stockton Town FC Tickets (ktckts.com)
GROUND: MAP Group UK Stadium, Bishopton Road West, Stockton-on-Tees, TS19 0QD
LIVE UPDATES: @stockton_townfc Twitter/X
LIVE COMMENTARY: Anchors Radio (mixlr.com)
Stockton Town host Prescot Cables this Saturday aiming to continue their strong start to the season.
The Anchors have secured back-to-back wins to start their Northern Premier League Premier Division season. Last Saturday they were 2-0 winners at Leek Town and in midweek they beat Guiseley 3-1.
Striker Michael Sweet has been in blistering form with three goals to his name already including a brace in the win over Guiseley.
Despite his sending off late in the game, Owen Gallacher should still be able to feature with his ban expected to applied from the Hyde United game on August 24th.
In terms of the other team news Shane Henry is close to returning and Arjun Purewal should be set to make his debut in the near future.
THE OPPOSITION
Prescot Cables, like Stockton Town, are newly promoted to the NPL Premier Division after winning West Division Play-Offs last season. The Cables beat Bootle in the Semi-Final before overcoming City of Liverpool in the final. It marked a return to Step Three for the first time since 2009.
Despite the joy of promotion, they have endured a tumultuous Pre-Season. Ste Daley who guided the club to promotion resigned on July 16th and was replaced by Dave Dempsey. In a turn of events Dempsey then resigned and Daley was reinstated as manager on July 19th.
There was a change at boardroom level as Tony Zerenova resigned as Chairman and was replaced by Joe Gibiliru.
On the pitch, last season’s top scorer John Murphy has remained with the club. The striker was signed from Ramsbottom in 2022 and hit 25 goals on the way to promotion last season.
They have added some international flavour to their squad with their Summer signings. Fiji International Scott Wara, who featured in the recent edition of the OFC Nations Cup, joined from Stalybridge Celtic. Brazilian Goalkeeper Andre Mendes, who started his youth career with SL Benfica, also signed.
There has also been two loan signings from the National League North in Southport midfielder Finlay Heath and Marine midfielder Charley Doyle.
From their opening two games the Merseysiders have taken one point. On the opening day they played out a goalless draw at home to Matlock Town before going down narrowly 1-0 at Macclesfield in their last outing.
They produced a spirited second half display at the Leasing.com Stadium and were unlucky not come away with a point.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
This is the first-ever meeting between Stockton Town and Prescot Cables.
FORM GUIDE
Stockton Town: WW
Last Game: Stockton Town 3-1 Guiseley AFC
Prescot Cables: DL
Last Game: Macclesfield 1-0 Prescot Cables
PRE-MATCH QUOTES
Looking ahead to Saturday’s game, Michael Dunwell said:
“We go into each game exactly the same. We’ll get our report and then we’ll go through that and prepare correctly like we have done for the first two games. See where can hurt them and see where their strengths are.
“Hopefully we can the same result as we have for the first two games.”
By James Cartwright
