10.30am 11 October 2025
South Manchester and Cheshire Christian League, Division Two
Central 2 Ditton Athletic 5 (att 9)
It was thanks to an eagle-eyed fellow groundhopper that I learnt, during the week, that Central FC have moved into a football ground that, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been used for adult Saturday football for at least a couple of decades.
The pitch at Jackson's Boat in Sale, adjacent to a pub of the same name and close to Sale Water Park and the River Mersey, has long been a curiosity. I've passed it several times, and wondered why an enclosed and partly-railed off pitch wasn't in more regular use.
Central's league campaign only has seven home games, and as this was the second of those I didn't want to wait too long to tick off the ground. Needless to say it's above average for Saturday morning football, with training lights a recent addition, although the pitch-side changing rooms show sad signs of vandalism.
Central had lost their three opening fixtures but a first minute goal gave them the perfect start against Widnes-based Ditton. The visitors were soon on top, but wayward finishing and decent goalkeeping delayed their equaliser.
They scored eventually though, only to concede again in the final moments of the opening half.
If Central had been fortunate to lead at the break, their luck ran out in the second half. It opened with a Ditton equaliser, and not long later they went ahead. Two more goals, one a penalty, completed a comfortable away win.
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