 Cup
fever grips Ramsbottom.
Saturday, 19th January 2008
by
Christopher Dunn
Ramsbottom United are in Cup action in a weeks time against VodKat
League Division Two side Chadderton FC, to be played at Andrew
Street, Chadderton.
Looking back at previous results against Chadderton and the Rams
must surely be favourites to progress. They have played each
other five times over the years and won four. In fact the Rams
lost the first encounter 4-5 in a Fa Vase preliminary tie back in
1997. Since then they have won the last four encounters,
scoring eleven goals and conceding just four.
As
for the League Cup, the
Rams came close to reaching the final, only to be beaten 5-6 by
Newcastle Town in the 2003-04 semi-finals. In the first
leg the Rams won 4-3 thanks to goals by Saunders (2), Stewart and Swailes and although they took the lead in the second leg at the
Lyme-Valley Stadium, they finally succumbed to a Newcastle onslaught
and lost 1-3 during extra-time.
They
have also appeared in the quarter-finals on two occasions with the
first being in the 2002-03 season and again it was Newcastle Town
that ended their hopes for the year after beating the Rams 2-4 at
the Riverside Ground. The game once more went into
extra-time.
The
2005-06 season saw the Rams make the quarter finals again but this
time they went out thanks to a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Salford
City at the Riverside Ground.
So,
two quarter final appearances and one semi-final appearance in the
last five years isn't a bad record and supporters and officials
alike are all confident of progressing even further this season.
Chadderton FC wont think like that. They will feel confident
of beating the Rams, especially by having home advantage but as
Ramsbottom showed in the previous round, the bigger the club the
bigger the scalp as Kirkham and Wesham found out to their surprise.
The
Rams put in a tremendous performance to beat Kirkham with goals from
Anthony Johnson and Dave Hanlon, both coming during the second half.
Can
the Rams finally reach their first `real` cup final since lifting
the Second Division Trophy back in 1996? Well I for one
think they can and it would be a terrific achievement if they do so
- considering a new manager has come in and brought in an entire
side midway through the season.
  
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