Tomorrow sees Darlaston Town (1874) travel the short distance to play probably one of the closest derby’s in Midlands Non-League football against Willenhall Town at the Cottage Ground Wednesfield.

Earlier this Season both sides met at the Paycare Ground with Darlaston running out 6-0 winners, goals from Leon Taylor (2) Mark Swan, Tyrone Clarke-O’Connell, Danny Maine and Ryan Kingdon secured the three points. The game was played at the end of September and Willenhall’s new manager Matt Fisher was in the process of building his squad, as the season has progressed Willenhall Town’s results have steadily improved. Their last game, secured a place in the League Cup semi-final beating Old Wulfrunians 5-3 on penalties (1-1 after 90 mins and extra time).

Willenhall’s season started a week later than most on 11th August 2018 when they lost at Telford Juniors 3-1, Old Wulf’s were the first visitors to The Cottage Ground and returned home with a 3-1 victory. Over the Bank Holiday weekend, a trip into Shropshire and a home game against Wrens Nest ended in a 4-0 loss to Allscott and 3-0 to Wrens Nest.

September was not a good month for Willenhall losing 3-0 at home to Worcester Raiders, 5-3 away at Wellington Amateurs, 4-0 at Droitwich Spa and to Darlaston 6-0 followed by 2-0 loss to Bustleholme and finally a 4-0 loss at home to Tipton Town.

After Willenhall’s visit to the Paycare Ground Matt Fishers squad has changed significantly with plenty of ins and outs, producing an improvement in the results and the squads performance on the pitch. October saw the first points on the board with a 2-2 draw at home against Bromyard Town, prior to that a 2-1 loss at home against last seasons runners up Newport Town.

Willenhall’s first win of the season was on 3rd November 2018 when Telford Juniors were beaten 4-1 at The Cottage Ground, goals from Tom Rayson and Amari Shaw (2) and a Christopher Adamson drop kick which bounced over Telford’s keeper.

The following week Willenhall travelled to Telford for a League Cup fixture, once again winning for the second week running this time 2-1. The rise in form was short lived as they suffered a 5-1 reversal to Wellington Amateurs at The Cottage Ground, followed by a 4-1 loss at Newport Town.

Once again, more additions to the squad and an improvement in form saw Willenhall achieve their second win of the League season in the first week of December, a big 4-1 at home to Wyrley, two goals from Liam Hickman, Ben Brown and Josh Harkins. The following week a creditable 1-1 draw at Sikh Hunters with Liam Hickman once again on the score sheet and the big one for the ex-Gornal contingent at Willenhall a huge moral boosting 2-1 at the Cottage. Liam Hickman once again on the score sheet and the winner scored by Liam Cox, who bundled the ball over the line at the near post after a flick on from his central defensive partner Connor Fellows. At the endo of December during Christmas week Willenhall lost 2-1 at home to Allscott who completed the double over them.

January has seen Willenhall become difficult to score against as all games have been close. Losses in the League, 1-0 loss at Old Wulfrunians, Willenhall were hard done by as a clear goal was not awarded by the Referee. Matt Fisher’s sides last League game was on 12th January 2019 against Sikh Hunters, after being a Liam Hickman goal to the good at half-time saw then concede two second half goals to lose 2-1 loss at.

Tomorrow, despite Willenhall’s 16th position in the League, given their recent form and significant improvement in results due to the hard work of Matt Fisher and his coaches, Darlaston will be facing yet another tough test, Willenhall are defending well, but seem to find it difficult to score.

Andy Parkes has a fully fit squad available except the injured Ryan McAllister, “the players have had two great training sessions this week”, Parkes said earlier today, “the lad are starting to look really sharp and are really looking forward to each game. Selection once again will be a headache, when you have so many capable players playing for so few places, Friday nights are causing a right headache on who to include or who not leave out, but I suppose that’s a great position to be in".

Two local Clubs such as Darlaston and Willenhall Town have a significant long history and both Clubs over recent time have come upon hard times, but both are now on the way up and everyone is looking forward to what promises to be an intriguing and interesting local derby tomorrow for many reasons.

Kick-off is at 3.00 p.m. and the game is being played at Wednesfield’s Cottage Ground, Amos Lane, Wednesfield, WV11 1ND.

We look forward to seeing as many of the Darlaston faithful as possible tomorrow in order to hopefully help Darlaston’s squad and management team extend their unbeaten League run, but as we all know nothing is a given in football, especially in a local derby.