After two seasons of interrupted football in the East Midlands Counties League, Shirebrook return to NCEL football this season looking for a change in fortunes under the management of Jordan Catnott.

‘Brook last played in the NCEL in the 2018-19 season, which was generally a season of struggle as they finished third bottom in Division One; winning only nine games before a lateral move over to the EMCL during the restructure of local leagues in the summer of 2019.

However, the last two seasons have obviously been severely impacted by the Covid pandemic, both of which weren’t played to a conclusion, and both of which the club struggled to pick up the number of points that they would have hoped.

But this season is a new one, there is fresh optimism after the appointment of former Glapwell, FC Bolsover, Retford United and Maltby Main manager Jordan Catnott in the summer. He has had to undertake somewhat of a rebuilding job joining the club with a threadbare squad which has been steadily strengthened during a longer than normal pre-season campaign.

Pre-season began right back at the beginning of June, and although results have been a mixed bag, performances have generally been good and there have been some fine individual performances in and amongst them games so the club came go into the season hopeful of a relatively successful campaign.

However, they have been given a tough start against one of the title favourites North Ferriby. ‘The Villagers’ are only two years old as a club; forming after the previous North Ferriby (United) were wound up in 2019 over unresolved debts.

They were placed in Division One of the NCEL upon their formation but due to the Covid pandemic have yet to complete a full league season, finishing both previous curtailed seasons in fourth place upon the respective finish.

They are expected to be right up at the top end of the table challenging again and are currently managed by ex-professional footballer Chris Bolder, who has been with the club since the beginning of the new club, having spent seven years as a player with North Ferriby United and a further year as manager during their Northern Premier League days.

Nothing can ever be read into pre-season games but ‘The Villagers’ have had an impressive pre-season beating three sides (Pickering Town, Grimsby Borough and Albion Sports) from higher divisions, the latter very impressively putting five past the NCEL Premier Division side last weekend.

Obviously, the clubs have been in different divisions for the last two seasons, so this is the first meeting of these two sides.

Admission is £5.00 Adults / £3.00 Concessions / £1.00 Kids, and kick-off is at 3.00pm.
Snack cabin on the ground and fully licensed clubhouse is situated next to the football ground.

We look forward to welcoming everybody back to Langwith Road for what will, fingers crossed, be an entertaining game at the start of a, hopefully, full and complete league campaign.