Men's Team

We welcomed back some familiar faces to the APEC on Tuesday, when City of Liverpool were our guests and it turned out to be a cracking game. The Linnets took a 2 nil lead following a Jacques Welsh penalty and a header from Ryan Brooke before Freddie Potter (who else!) got a goal back before half time to send us into the break leading 2-1. City of Liverpool got off to a very bright start in the 2nd half and we quickly found ourselves 3-2 behind following goals from Ryan Gibson (another familiar name) and Djavan Pedro. Then on 67 minutes Iwan Murray's marauding run was crudely brought to a halt by the City of Liverpool number 5. After picking himself up, Iwan exacted the ultimate revenge by perfectly placing the ball in the top corner to make it 3-3.

After being 2-0 up at home you will always be disappointed not to win the game but we showed great character to find an equaliser and I felt we were the only team likely to find the winner.

Onto Saturday against Gateshead in the cup and what a game it promises to be, based on the press requests we've received it seems there's a lot of outside interest in the game and I cannot wait for it.

Linnets Ladies

The Ladies played Wythenshawe AFC Women on Sunday and after an eventful game they came away with a 2-2 draw with goals from Chelsea Gillies and Lile Ashley.

The Ladies are on their own FA Cup journey and they take their next step of the journey on Sunday 3rd October away against BRNESC Women FC at Melling Road, Liverpool, L9 0LQ. Hopefully the Ladies can get through and then get a home draw in the next round.

Development Team

The Development Team continued their difficult start to the season losing 4-1 at home to St Michaels DHFC with a lot of players missing, hopefully Gibbo will be able to field a consistent team soon and start picking up some results. Although, as I told Gibbo when I offered him the job, it isn't about results, it's about developing Linnets Juniors players into 1st team players.

Their next game is away against St Helens Town U21 on 3rd October.

Tea Bar We are aware of the issues with queuing at the Tea Bar, Grace and the staff in the Tea Bar are working flat out to get everyone served in a timely manner, unfortunately we are dealing with crowds almost double what they used to be and this means that it takes time to serve everyone.

We will trial opening the internal hatch into the Clubhouse for drinks and confectionary only but we will have to keep an eye on how it works because we don't want to create congestion inside the Clubhouse, especially considering we have moved the bar queue for similar reasons. The layout of the Clubhouse is not the best to work with and the reason I was reluctant to reopen the internal hatch as the queue used to block the door out to the pitch but we will endeavour to implement a workable solution.

Events

Our next event will be a Halloween party in The Clubhouse on Saturday 30th October with the doors opening at 7pm. Fancy dress is very much encouraged, there will be hot food provided, games played, prizes awarded for best costumes and of course our bar will be open until 11pm. Tickets are priced at £5 and I'm sure it will be a fun filled evening for all the family. Tickets will be available from the Club Shop, at the programmes table outside the main turnstile and online at the link below. If you have any questions regarding any of our events please speak to our Events Manager Grace Mantova.

Runcorn Linnets Events

Thank you all for reading.

Dave Jones

Runcorn Linnets FC - Chairman