Bishop Auckland (H) – Match Preview

Our first match as champions is here, and it is against a side who handed us a rare league defeat

The last encounter with Bishop Auckland saw the Two Blues beat us 4-3, with Rio May playing the full 90 minutes for them too.

Since then, we have only lost once. Bishop, on the other hand, have lost 18 times.

But past records do not matter once the ref blows their whistle, so the only important thing is that we get another three points.

Founded back in 1886, Bishop Auckland FC were created by students of Cambridge and Oxford University, who were studying at Auckland Castle.

Their blues were combined to give the side their colours, which are still in use today.

In 1889, they were one of the founding members of the Northern League, with the side’s first silverware coming in 1892. A bit before my time, this all was.

Skipping along to modern day (there is a lot of history about our opponents, mind you), Bishop Auckland’s most recent accolade saw them achieve promotion to Step 4 in the 2023-24 season.

That was our most recent season without promotion too, as the following campaign saw us promoted from Division One, and the campaign after was, well, this one.

Currently, Bishop Auckland are 6 points adrift from safety, and they are a match ahead of Blyth Town and Ashington, who occupy the two spots above them.

Their end-of-season run is a mixed bag of difficulty too, with the fixture against us being followed by a home match against Garforth, with their remaining 4 matches after those seeing them travel to Consett and Bradford Park Avenue, whilst also hosting the two Blyth sides.

Unless things are sorted before then, that match against Blyth Town will be monumental for both sides, with whoever loses almost guaranteed to be relegated

As for us, things are a lot more chipper!

A beer-soaked Bosh bagged four against Matlock to hand us the title, with the trophy to be given…at some point. We are somewhat sure it will be on Easter Monday, when we host Bridlington, but I have no idea, and I don’t want to give you more wrong info than I have already done this season.

What I can tell you is that after the Bishop Auckland match, we travel to Emley, meaning we face all of the league teams we lost to in a row.

Last Saturday’s match against Bradford Park Avenue was our first return to their ground since our FA trophy penalty defeat.

Then we hosted Matlock, who beat us 2-0 at their place

Bishop Auckland on Saturday, who we lost to 4-3, is next, and the last of that run sees us, as mentioned earlier, travel to an Emley side who beat us 3-0 back in August

Wins in our next 2 matches will also mean that we have beaten every other team in our league throughout this campaign, which is a very solid feat to add to the list of ever-growing Steelmen feats

To end this preview, I am going to turn my attention to Bosh. (Shocker, I know).

He is now just one goal off hitting 40 league goals, and with the form he has been in all season, and the calibre of opponents left, I do trust him to not only hit that target, but breeze past it.

Albie Hall is now closer to 4th than 1st in the Step’s top scorer chart, and Matlock’s Cameron Wilson, who is third in the league’s top scorer race, is closer to 6 goals than he is to Bosh’s tally.

Brad Fewster is still second in the league, though he is only one goal away from being caught by Wilson.

But Bosh, as always, has been in a league of his own.

See you all tomorrow, and don’t forget that it is free to get in!

We are taking donations at the gate, with proceeds going to Prostate Cancer UK, and so we hope to see many of you at the Hollou