BOXING DAY 'STAFFORDSHIRE' DOUBLE

First and foremost, Happy Christmas to all readers of this blog. I hope Santa brought everything you desired!

It wouldn't be Christmas without a Boxing Day 'double header' but with the weather decidedly dodgy over the festive period, I thought it safe to abort my original planned double of Welton Rovers and Chippenham Town (though both games did go ahead and both finished 3-3) and make a short-ish trip to Staffordshire for an easy double.... 

11.30am
MIDLAND COMBINATION
PREMIER LEAGUE

STAFFORD TOWN 1
BROCTON 0

ATTENDANCE: 185

Stafford Town's Evans Park was opened in 2010

With Stafford's excellent Twitter feed giving the heads up about this game being on, there were plenty of 'hoppers' in amongst the bumper crowd to witness Stafford Town beat Brocton for the first time since 1992. 

The game was a typical tight derby affair with both teams cancelling each other out. The best of the first half chances went to the homesters and they took the lead after 29 minutes through James Cresswell, whose neat lob over 'keeper proved to be a worthy winner.

Brocton's upped their games in the second half and their efforts probably merited a share of the spoils but it was Town who held firm to earn the local bragging rights.

Spot the groundhopper!

Once the final whistle blew at Evans Park, it was a trip up the A34 to the city of Stoke-on-Trent for.....

3.00pm
NORTH WEST COUNTIES
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

HANLEY TOWN 4
LEEK CSOB 0

ATTENDANCE: 111

The covered terrace Hanley's Abbey Lane ground

Comfortable win for Hanley who are adapting well to life in their debut season at step 6, after being promoted from the Staffs County League. Two goals in each half bagged the points and Hanley also had the luxury of missing a penalty, amongst a host of other chances.

Theo Stair (20) gave the homesters the lead from penalty spot (pictured right) before missing a second spot kick. James Pointon (41) did make it 2-0 before the break.

Leek had a go, as you would expect, in the second period before were susceptible to the counter attack. They failed to breach the Hanley goal and eventually conceded to late goals as Danny Tainton (82) and Michael Morton (84) made certain of the points.