Hope you enjoy yourselves in the Bridge on sunday.
For those coming by car, get here early. There is limited parking near the ground and a small car-park at it.
The Social Club is cheap and cheerful and is the reason Celtic are letting Oldham share the ground - so they can get the cash to pay for a new one!
There is an Indian restaurant at the ground that does pre and post match specials. You lot may be more discerning but it isn't bad and is very friendly. It also has a separate Bar..
As for Beer, well you can't do wrong although it's a good 15 minute walk uphill to the ground from the nearest Pub.

If you're coming by Train, the best Pub in Stalybridge ( and one of the best anywhere ) is on platform 1 at Stalybridge Railway station. You can get a bus to Bower Fold outside the station on the other side of the road - 236/237 to Glossop.
Next to the station is the Q (real ale) then the Fleece which has been adopted by the Roughyeds fans and has cheap pies but no real ale, before the White House (real ale) comes next.
Taxi or Bus - you friendly landlord/lady should be able to call you a cab and it'll cost £3-4.
Wetherspoons is at the top of Melbourne St and you can call there en-route from the ones listed above.
There is the British Protection across from Tesco and up Acres Lance, the Hunters, a bit cliquey but good beer and TV sport and next to it is the Organ.

At the ground, you lot have been allocated the Lord Tom Pendry stand (seated) and I believe, if you choose to stand, you will be able to move ends at HT as at Batley (which is quite similar to BF as it happens)

So enjoy Bower Fold and your visit to the Bridge.

Going back to the referee situation briefly, apparently George Stokes has retired from being a referee. Might go some ways to explain us having Hicks at the weekend.

Yet another ref bites the dust... I worry about the state of refereeing at the moment! Then again i'm not surprised. When i was younger (apx 10yrs ago, im 24 now) i was in the junior match officials program and it was a total ph. Cliquey, badly organised and not very informative; they didnt make it easy for people to have an interest in it! I never had aspirations of going pro or anything; only did it as i'd knackered my knee and couldnt play anymore so it was a way to keep in the game! The RFL training sessions and local society meetings (a gathering of 50+'s in the back room of a club) was enough to put anyone off!

On a different note; I hope Oldham ahve had the covers on the pitch!

Clough Fleming and Thomas replace Sidlow Walker and Purtell.
Very pleased to see Clough in the squad.
Will Thomas play at full back , at centre or in the halves?

think purtell is a planned omission as he did that charity swim this weds iirc. Don't think Thomas has played centre before?. Would guess at Blythe or mellor filling in at centre.

Be interesting to see how Jimmy goes. Think Blythe and Mathers are lucky to have kept their spots. Surprised O'Brien is doing 80 again, thought he had his worst game in a Bulls shirt last week.

O'Brien passing could be better. Can't see much hope for Halafihi however.

That's more to do with the fact that we lost every single collision last week. Even Cameron Smith would have struggled to make an impact with that kind of ruck speed.
I don't see why we can't have Thomas on the bench as a replacement hooker, and then have him and Addy swap roles when in the defensive line.

There is no need for O'Brien to be playing 80 minutes against Oldham! Not suggestion Oldham are mugs but if Vila or Lumb can't get a spot in the squad against Oldham that is concerning.

Or even Baile.... He was good enough to play in the MPG

My thoughts exactly. Lumb and Halafihi would go fine. We've got a huge game away to Batley the week after. The Oldham pitch could be exceptionally heavy.

Agreed. Would've liked to have seen Lumb get another chance off the bench.

Glad Clough is back.

Purtell is out injured for the foreseeable future. Blythe will provide the cover.

Why is Adrian Purtell out injured for the foreseeable future?

Surely if he had sustained an injury the club would have published it via the T&A?

I hope this one isn't called off!

From squad i'd go with...

Richie Mathers
Omari Caro
Kris Welham
Matty Blythe
James Clare
Lee Gaskell
Danny Addy
Paul Clough
Adam O’Brien
Tom Olbison
Jay Pitts
Kurt Haggerty
Rhys Lovegrove

Mitch Clark
Oscar Thomas
Alex Mellor
Dan Fleming/Steve Crossley

Dale Ferguson to miss out along with one of Fleming and Crossley. Think Fergie needs to be played carefully due to past injuries and throwing him in against Oldham which should be a fairly straight forward win might not be best thing for him long term.

I think mid way through game, I'd like to see Thomas in at halfback and switch Addy to hooker to give OB a rest. I think you could interchange those three at will.

It is a surprise though not to see Vila and Etu getting a shout so far this year in games like these.

Etu was in shop before Leigh game. Said he'd been injured and was close to being fit.

I would like to see OT at full back again... I think he offers an extra threat in attack compared to Mathers.

Although bullinenemyland your suggestion also makes sense.

I heard that Nobby Naylor has prepared his side for taking on the Bulls defence by using life-size models of Jelly & Blancmange, though I think that is a "trifle" OTT!

Reading between lines of today's t&a articles it sounds like Clough isn't ready and Fleming is definitely playing. Assuming match isn't called off.

Just been on the Bulls Facebook page that as it stands the game is on, however there will be a further announcement tomorrow morning at 9am

Yeah, the Alfreton town Twitter announced this morning that the clash with Stalybridge was off (before Stalybridge did, weirdly) - to my mind that makes the likelihood of our game better, considering the weather and the fact that the pitch won't get churned up by a soccer game. Here's hoping anyway.

This game has been rescheduled for Sunday 8th May.

I've just looked at our fixture list and this weekend was always free. Is this presumably a challenge cup weekend?
The club might end up having to reschedule again if we're not out of the cup by then. We probably will be, but you never know.

I think there are 3 free weekends for the CC. That's why season started earlier. Presumably RFL want to avoid mid-week games.

Round 6 by my calculation. The one where last season's SL Top 8 enter.

So clubs must be assuming that both us and Oldham will be out of the cup in the next round if not this one. Considering Oldham have amateur opposition in the 4th round, it would only take an easy draw for them in the 5th and the game is being postponed again. That's not to mention us potentially getting past Dewsbury and whoever else in the next round.

When you take into account Fev Lions playing Lock Lane in this round too, that's a potentially very easy tie for someone in Round 5.

Seems odd they wouldn't say "subject to challenge cup advancement" or something along those lines.