Tomorrow Darlaston Town have a long trip into Cheshire to play league leader Congleton Town who in midweek beat Northern Premier League side Witton Albion 2-0 in the Quarter Final of the Cheshire Senior Cup

Congleton Town going into the weekend’s fixtures head the Midland Football League Premier Division by nine points over Litchfield City, but Lichfield have two games in hand. Congleton have won 16 of their 22 games so far losing three and drawing three, one of which was at the Paycare Stadium on August Bank Holiday Monday.

At the Paycare Stadium Congleton opened the scoring in the first half with Ethan Hartshorn, putting the visitors in front after 18 minutes. Louis Baker scored just before the halftime interval, but defender McKenzie Faulkner received a straight red card, just before the half time interval putting the visitors down to ten men for the second half. Within a minute of the restart Darlaston took a 2-1 lead James Rowland scoring. The points were shared when Congleton player manager Richard Duffy came on from the bench to equalise with virtually the last kick of the game in the 98th minute to equalise and finish the game with the points shared.

The league leaders so far this season have won all of their 12 home league games, scoring 37 goals and conceding, just six, so, Darlaston Town will face a real test against the strongest side in the division and in front of a partisan home crowd which for their last two or three games have been over 600 each time.

Since the turn of the year, Congleton have beaten Stone Old Alleynians 1-0 at their Cleric Stadium. They travelled to Whitchurch Alport who they beat by the same scoreline the following Tuesday in the League Cup. Congleton returned to their home stadium to beat 9-man Wolverhampton Casuals 7-0 after two Casuals players received straight red cards. Last Saturday Congleton travelled to at the time second placed Studley who raced into a two-goal lead. Richard Duffy’s squad scored twice to force a draw against their nearest rivals, and arguably could have taken all three points because they were the strongest team at the end of the game.

Player Manager, Richard, Duffy utilised to squad fully over the season and most players have got onto the scoresheet, but their main dangermen so far have been David Needham who was scored 16 goals in 25 starts and Brian Barton who has notched 10 in 14 games, but in any event Congleton Town’s set-piece routines have resulted in several of the clubs goals this season and have been a great goal threat.

Darlaston, after disappointment of not playing last weekend, due to a frozen pitch arranged, a midweek friendly against Lye Town, which proved to be very useful for Dean Gill players getting competitive minutes into players legs to keep fitness levels up. There are no major injury concerns or availability issues as Darlaston look to one of their most important games this season and one that they will certainly go into as underdogs given the impressive form of Congleton Town who rightly are top of the table after some fantastic results and performances.

Congleton Town play at the Cleric Stadium the full address is.
Congleton Town
Claire Stadium
Ivy Gardens.
CONGLETON,
CW12 4GA.

There is no parking within the ground, parking is readily available on the roads around the ground, and the club have suggested that Darlaston supporters look to park on Boothe Street by the cricket ground.

Game kicks off at 3 pm
Admission is:
Adults £8, Concessions £5, Under 16's free
We understand that hot and cold food will be on sale within the ground before the game.

We hope to see as many Darlaston supporters as possible attend this game for what is a really important game as we now start to enter the business end of the season.