We’re looking back month by month at Warrington’s athletic year as 2023 draws to an end.
First, we examine January, a month in which the round-ball game gained popularity.
The town’s football fans had a tantalising start to 2023 on January 14, when Warrington Town and Warrington Rylands squared off in the second ‘derby’ of the season at Gorsey Lane.
Nearly 2,000 people flocked to the Orford pitch to watch the game, which was wonderfully set up given that the two neighbours were competing for a play-off berth and that their previous meeting had ended in a wild 3-3 draw at Cantilever Park the previous October.
Even though Rylands dominated the first half and should have led by more than Ajay Leitch-Smith’s early goal, the Yellows crossed the Mersey with the points and the pride after Jordan Buckley’s brace in the second half sealed a 2-1 triumph.
Ajay Leitch-Smith blasts Rylands ahead in the derby… (Image: Mark Percy)
But in the end, Town would be the ones to celebrate after Jordan Buckley scored twice in the second half. (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Moore)
While Rylands’s push for the play-offs would eventually fade, the game turned out to be one of the highlights of a run that gained Town promotion to the National League North.
In fact, the derby was held in between two significant occasions in Blues’ season: one week prior, they achieved a club record transfer fee when they sold top scorer Callum Dolan to Fleetwood Town in the EFL, and shortly after the game, manager Jody Banim resigned, leaving the team in search of a new manager for the third time this season.
Preparations for Daryl Powell and his team were nearing completion as the Warrington Wolves counted down to a new season.
They travelled to Portugal in January for their first abroad training camp since before the Covid epidemic to hone their preparations for the 2023 campaign.
