Author: Richard Isaacs

Edition number two of this series looking back at the events on the pitch on the respective Saturday’s in our non-league history.

Widnes have been a club that has been making huge strides since being founded in 2003 as The Dragons AFC and transferred to their current guise in 2014, a couple of seasons after they joined the North West Counties League.

It probably comes as a surprise that Saturday’s game will be the first ever competitive meeting between Ramsbottom United and Irlam.

With this Saturday’s FA Cup qualifying round encounter with Irlam kicking off the 2020/21 season, let’s have a look back at the first time the club stepped on “The Road to Wembley” in 1998.

In the first of a new series, we will look back at events that took place on this respective Saturday across Rammy’s semi-professional history.

At the start of the 2000/01, the Rams were paired in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup with a club that had played in non-league football for over 50 years but it was their move just two years later in the Scottish Leagues and subsequent demise in 2008 that made them the story of the footballing world.