Match Preview

MATCH PREVIEW BY MARK BROOKES....
This Saturday 1st February sees Runcorn Linnets visiting the Home Estates Shawe View Stadium for the second time this season. Their first visit back in October ended in a 3-0 win for the Linnets in the FA Trophy Preliminary Round.
Runcorn sit one place above Trafford in 8th position on 34 points in the Bet Victor Northern Premier NW Division. They will be in confident mood as they are currently one of the league’s form sides, their last ten games read W7 D2 L1 F14 A8, a run which includes a home victory against Trafford back in December. Linnet’s only recent defeat was away at Brighouse Town 2-0.
Runcorn Linnets is a fan-owned club formed in 2006 following the sad demise of Runcorn AFC. Adopting the former club’s green & yellow colours, they were promoted to the NPL after winning the North West Counties League in 2017-18. As such, our visitors have only played Trafford five times (3 in the league; 2 in the cup). Last season’s game at Shawe View ended in a 0-0 stalemate, while Trafford’s only victory against Runcorn came at The Millbank Linnets Stadium last season where Baker’s Boys ran out 3-1 winners on the way to lifting the Integro League Cup.
The Green & Yellows have a few familiar faces in their squad that Trafford fans will know: Left back and set-piece specialist Louis Corrigan, Trafford fans’ favourite Ally Brown & central defender Jimmy Moore who was in Trafford’s Integro League Cup winning side last season. Runcorn have in the last 48 hours signed two experienced and quality attacking players in Ben Wharton from Radcliffe, and Craig Lindfield from Marine.
Kick-off is 3pm at the Home Estates Shawe View stadium, down the lane behind The Bird In Hand pub. We have a clubhouse with licensed bar, hot and cold drinks / food / snack bar, plenty of covered seating and standing. Everybody’s welcome! Keep up to date with fixtures and news from the club on traffordfc.com and our Twitter account @fctrafford. Thank you!