Worksop Town vs. Leigh RMI preview

By Matt Lawton
October 4 2006

After the crushing disappointment of last weekend’s shock 2-0 home defeat to Woodley Sports that ended RMI’s interest in the FA Cup for this season, Stuart Humphreys’ side will be looking to make amends for it when they travel to Worksop Town this Saturday.

After it was previously announced that the game was due to take place this coming Friday, it has now been controversially switched back again to take place at Worksop’s Babbage Way ground on Saturday with a 3pm start, avoiding a clash with the England game that kicks off at 5pm at Old Trafford.

Goalkeeper James Mann is available for selection again after he missed the FA Cup defeat through suspension following his sending off in the league defeat at home to Lancaster City. However, Mann faces stiff competition from his young understudy Danny Moreton for a place between the sticks, while previous number one John Lamb has made a surprise return to the club, just a matter of weeks after he walked out on the club for ‘personal reasons’, with Lamb looking for an immediate return to action against the Tigers.

With Scott Willis making a goalscoring debut for Telford last weekend after his sudden departure from RMI, Hugh McAuley is set to partner Mark Drew in the centre of midfield, though right winger Steve Settle is struggling with an injury that may see Ian Taylor and Lee Shillito starting on the wings, although that depends on the fitness of full backs Steve Brockley and Andy Roscoe as RMI’s injury worries start to mount up.

While RMI were struggling against last Saturday, Worksop were also seeing the evaporation of their dream for FA Cup glory this season, although they did it certainly in more credible fashion than RMI managed as the Tigers fell to a 2-0 defeat to fellow Conference North side Droylsden.

The fixture at Babbage Way last season proved to be a thrilling encounter, with the hosts racing in to a 3-0 half-time lead that meant they were seemingly home and dry, only for Chris Simm and Gary Williams to score second half goals to pull it back to 3-2, before Worksop defender Kevin Davies put the ball past his own goalkeeper to level the scores at 3-3 with only ten minutes remaining. After managing to grab a point from the crunching jaws of defeat, RMI somewhat gained revenge for their 1-0 defeat at home to the Tigers earlier in the season in an encounter that Leigh dominated from start to finish, and it went some way to preventing the Railwaymen from finishing at the bottom of the pile come the end of the league season.

Even at this early stage of the season, the battle for points to avoid relegation is getting more important by the week, with Worksop just one point outside the relegation zone, although they’re level on points with RMI who are in sixteenth position thanks to their superior goal difference brought about a run of four consecutive clean sheets earlier in the season.

The journey from Hilton Park to Babbage Way is just over seventy-seven miles, taking around one hour and forty-five minutes to complete, traffic dependant. Directions are available here, while there is ample parking providing in the area around the ground.