Arr! What Is It Good For?

Well for one thing, it stops Warrington Town and Harrogate Railway Athletic being known as Wington Town and Hogate Railway Athletic respectively.

And by a sheer stroke of coincidence these are the two teams Mossley will face over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

First up are the men from Junction 9 of the M62. Following a season in the First Division South, Warrington have been bumped sideways (or, geographically speaking, upwards) into the Northern Division, giving a whole host of other clubs the opportunity to experience the joys of a trip to Cantilever Park at least once over the course of the next eight and a half months.

According to Wikipedia, which automatically makes what follows possibly only 30% true, Warrington have four nicknames: Town, Yellows, Wire and Warriors - one for every supporter.

Only kidding Warringtonians if you're reading this. I know from past experience how touchy you can be, as do many other Mossley supporters who remember being lambasted by a Town fan on the old Mossley message board for not drinking enough in their club house at a night match.

The first week of the new season has been a rather fruitful one for the men from the banks of the Ship Canal. An opening day win against Salford was followed by a midweek draw against Bamber Bridge, Town rescuing the game after being 3 - 1 down at one point. Hopefully Mossley will complete the WLD set for them by sending them back home with a defeat. History is on Mossley's side in this respect as Warrington haven't won at Seel Park for fifteen years, and in the six games played in that time (W5, D1) we've scored 17 times to their six.

Monday will see Mossley hopefully have a better time of it in Harrogate than on their last visit to North Yorkshire. Back in January the Lilywhites used up a few years worth of good luck just to lose by the one goal in three, when three could, and should, have been the square root of Railway’s winning margin. All in all it was a thoroughly miserable day that was made worse for by long delays on the train journey home.

While their Station View ground isn’t the best in the world I’m not going to poke fun at its slope, it's bleak surroundings or, frankly, anything else to do with Athletic as any club were an official praises a match report that I did can do no wrong by me*.

And that is why the preview for this match is so short - nothing at all to do with any preposterous suggestion that because I’m on holiday I can’t be bothered.

Okay, well maybe a little.

*Yes, I can be bought that easily. Worth bearing in mind if you desperately want something overlooked in a review or a match report.