Match preview by Josh Birkin

Thackley AFC’s road to Wembley takes them on the M62 to Lancashire in the hope of ending a 14-year wait.
Warrington Rylands currently sit in 20th place in the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League table, on four points from six games. They have only recently recorded their first and only victory of the season, last weekend away at Morpeth Town. This season, the home side have shown themselves to be defensively solid, keeping two clean sheets and conceding no more than one goal in five of those six games. The exception is their midweek game against Ashford United. In that game, they fell victim to a quartet of goals from Jason Gilchrist, three of which came after the half time break, in a 4-3 home defeat. Rylands, currently sit in step 7 of the football league pyramid, step 3 of the non-league pyramid. They operate with a slightly defensive shape, focused on organization. However, they may need to change that philosophy in a game where they are arguably the favourites and the team that is expected to get a positive result. They have failed to score in four of their league games so far this season, however, they have found the net three times on the two occasions that they have scored. Four of their six goals have been scored by striker Jake Burton, these include a hat-trick in their recent 3-0 win against Morpeth. If Thackley can manage the difficult job of keeping him quiet, ‘the Blues’ may struggle to score.

Thackley last made it to this stage of the competition in 2015 when they were beaten by Abbey Hey, following a replay, after coming back from two goals down at Dennyfield in the first tie. They have not managed to progress beyond this point since 2010, when they beat Marske United before going out to Ashington in the next round.

Thackley will be hoping that they can bounce back from their last-minute defeat against Golcar United on Tuesday night. The Dennyboys thought they had rescued a point through a Grech-Brooksbank penalty on sixty one minutes. Despite looking the most likely to grab a second, it was the visitors that took home all three points, Golcar’s George Doyle tapping in from close range as the game went into time added on. Last weekend’s defeat in the FA Vase was another disappointing result, Thackley’s run in the competition was ended by Colne, beaten 3-1 despite looking the better side.

Saturday’s hosts sent a scout to watch both games and, given that the two sides have never met before, the information he gathered maybe of use. Danny Forrest is hoping to have a full squad available for the game.

As always, all travelling support is much appreciated, especially for this game.

Entry to Gorsey Lane is £10 for adults, £7 for concessions and £2 for under 16’s..