BURSCOUGH PREVIEW

Are we all Black Pudding Throwing’d out?  It is a quick turn around until the fourth in a row home game and it’s another against a play-off contender and some would say surprisingly so as Burscough hit the town for a Tuesday night under the lights.

MATCH: Ramsbottom United vs Burscough
VENUE: Harry Williams Riverside Stadium, Ramsbottom, BL0 0BS
COMPETITION: North West Counties Premier Division
DATE: Tuesday 16th September 2025
KICK-OFF: 7:45pm
ADMISSION: Adults – £9, Concessions – £5, U12 – £1 (with paying adult).
NOTE: We are a CASH ONLY stadium – there are NO CARD FACILTIES at the ground.

OVERVIEW:
No rest as this standard epic of a season in the NWCFL continues a-pace and, after a tough game with Stockport Town, incoming are Burscough to the Harry Williams Riverside Stadium.

The West Lancashire side find themselves in fourth place with 17 points to their names and securing five wins and two draws from their opening eight encounters, sitting just two points behind the Rams at time of printing.

The vastly experienced David Dempsey has got his side in superb form with six victories in their last seven games across all competitions, their only slip being a 2-1 home loss to FC St Helens but bounced straight back with a 5-0 thumping of FC Isle of Man in the next game.

So the Rams will certainly not be looking back at previous contests between the two sides with any kind of encouragement, especially as they secured a 10-0 aggregate tally over the side in green last term and are unbeaten in their last ten contests dating back to 2013 – more on the history later.

All of that will mean very little as the season continues to build and Burscough will have played Euxton Villa and Cheadle Town before heading to the HWRS so the table might or might not look wholesomely different.

One thing is for sure, this game is not going to be easy and manager Steve Wilkes certainly knows that from experience.

FACILITIES
The game at Ramsbottom United will be by payment in CASH at the turnstile (the club does not have a card facility).  Prices are as shown above and programmes are £2.

Due to cricket and adjacent building works, parking for spectators should be away from the ground, in either town centre car parks (drivers are advised to check any time limits) or in the various side streets, all of which are no more than 5-10 minutes walk away but please be mindful of local residents and businesses.

Various bus routes come into Ramsbottom town centre (https://bustimes.org/localities/ramsbottom for details) and the East Lancs Railway (https://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/events-activities/western-region-weekend/) station is adjacent to the ground.

Tea Bar serving hot and cold drinks, pie and peas, sweets, crisps etc will be open within the ground, as will the Can Bar serving beer, lager and cider.

HISTORY
We offer a very warm welcome to everyone coming over from Burscough for this game.

The Rams and Burscough are old foes from many years ago, first playing back in 1997 in the North West Counties League Division 1.  There was a 14-year gap before we met again in the NPL and the Rams have remained unbeaten in the league ever since 2012 – the only defeat in that time coming in the League Cup.

In the league though, it is 11 wins from 11 and the goal tally is 38 goals to nine including two big wins last season within the space of four weeks – a 4-0 triumph at the HWRS with Rhys Turner’s brace, an Oumar Camara strike and an own goal from the Burcough keeper before Tom Hoyle’s first-half hat-trick was joined by Camara, Luke Sephton and Rio McEvoy as the Rams ran out 6-0 victors at the Community Ground.

Naturally, given Burscough’s form this season – that will mean very little in the grand scheme of things but let’s see what happens as the story continues.

STEVE WILKES SAYS:
“Back to back games are always difficult, especially against two very good sides in Stockport Town and this game against Burscough, who have been outstanding this season under Dave Dempsey.

“He has got them playing some really good football and we will have to be on our guard, certainly not thinking about what happened last year when we beat them easily both times.  That doesn’t mean anything in this game but our showings recently have shown that the lads are gelling well.”