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UP NEXT – On Saturday we go up against Bamber Bridge at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium!

Kick Off is scheduled for 3pm, directions to the ground can be found below.

How to get to the Sir Tom Finney Stadium. (Taken from Bamber Bridge website)

By Car:

The ground is located just 3 minutes from junction 1 of the M65.
There is limited parking at the ground. On street parking is available on the residential streets near the ground. (Please consider our neighbours and park carefully.)

Additional car parking: Additional parking is available at Brownedge St Mary’s Church, Brownedge Lane, PR5 6SP (5 mins walk from the ground). Parking is charged at £2 per car – all proceeds go to church funds and local charities.

By Train:

The nearest train station is Bamber Bridge which is a 15 minute walk from the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.

Address:
Sir Tom Finney Stadium, Irongate, Brownedge Road, Bamber Bridge, Preston. PR5 6UU

GROUND INFORMATION

Ground Capacity: 2642 (includes 499 seated in the main stand)

Refreshments:
– Licensed clubhouse bar serving a wide selection of alcoholic and soft drinks, including real ales and continental lagers.

– May’s Place Refreshment Bar serves hot food, drinks, sweets and snacks.

An outside bar (located behind the main stand is open on selected match days

Toilets: Toilets are located in the clubhouse, adjacent to the clubhouse and behind the main stand. Accessible toilets are located in the clubhouse and adjacent to the main stand.

Parking: There is limited parking at the ground on matchdays. Visitors parking in the areas around the ground are asked to be considerate to our neighbours and park legally and considerately.

Well, here it is! The first game of a new season. Welcome to the Horsfall, hopefully with the sun shining and all the excitement that comes with high hopes. Nobody has lost yet, so all to play for!

Back in 1971 we had just been voted out of the old Fourth Division (now League 2) into the NPL and our first game was against Macclesfield!

We nicked it 1-0! Some of today’s crowd were there and the goal scorer (Alan Ham) is still a frequent visitor here, with his grandchildren.

This season both clubs want to move up to the National League North. Avenue want a quick return there, whilst Macc are in a hurry to climb back quickly to regain their EFL place.

I’m not sure there are any easy leagues to win these days and that means every game is vital, even game one, when new teammates are getting to work out how to be at their very best together, as soon as possible.

Macclesfield, with its star support, will start as favourites to win the league. A large fan base and wealthy sponsors give them firm foundations for their ambitions, but it also makes them the team to beat in this league and that’s what we will try to do today!

New kit, new-look shop, new players are important but more goals and more of a winning mentality is critical too, especially after the frustrations of last season. Hopefully our new physio will also help us to avoid lengthy injury lists!

Martin and Mark have recruited well, giving us some solid familiarity along with a smattering of new faces and budding young stars. They will no doubt be keeping an eye out for more opportunities throughout August as more players flood the market. Like it or not, affordability, versatility and personality are the prime considerations to fit into the last few squad places and we are moving to a hybrid format, with full time training sessions for our younger squad members and more performance-related rewards.

Listening to Robbie Savage on the Macclesfield club website he likes some continuity of players from season to season and a 4-3-3 formation.

We have retained several of our players from last season and Mark often sets us up as a flexible 4-3-3, so today will be a fascinating contest.

Games come thick and fast early on and we need a far better start than last season, so we welcome testing ourselves against the bookies’ favourites today.

Next month we will also want to start far better cup runs to get more funds in for the first team and to keep our attendances up by heading for Round One proper of the FA Cup.

So, no shortage of atmosphere with a big crowd for the first game, and a good time for us to upset the odds.

Give your team great support and enjoy a good game of football, maybe a glass of beer and some great chips. It’s non-league at its best as a new season gets under way again.