MATCH REPORT: Chaddy Progress in World’s Oldest Cup Competition

Written by Jacob Jones

It was a special FA Cup weekend as we defeated Stockport Town at our new home, the Emplas Commercial North Stadium.

Our visitors have had an impressive start to their 2025/26 campaign, currently sitting in pole position in the nwcfl premier division after two games. So, we anticipated a hard-fought battle yesterday.

It was a relatively cagey beginning to proceedings, of course the FA Cup being of huge importance to both sides can sometimes lead to very cautious matches like we saw in the opening stages of yesterday’s fixture.

However, the game was kickstarted by a goal for our visitors on the half an hour mark, an impressively collective finish from Stockport’s number nine, George Kattah as he slots the ball past Joseph Oldham in our goal to make it 1-0.

Their lead was close to being doubled shortly after, Kattah once again causing us issues as he wins the ball back high up and proceeding to force a strong stop from our goalkeeper, Joseph Oldham, who did well to keep it out.

We would end the half in style, a trademark outside of the box shot from Matty Crothers firing us level just before the break. This goal would have certainly changed manager, Carl Taylor’s halftime team talk.

Whatever was said clearly had an impact as it was an energetic starter to the second half by Chadderton. A big chance fell for Benito Lowe, early in the half but he ultimately struggled to get the ball out of his feet, allowing Stockport’s Josh Schofield time toto get low and save the shot with his legs.

Chances fell to both teams throughout the second half, our visitors even striking the woodwork, but it would be us who would take the lead. Once again, it was the returning Lewis Byrne who found the back of the net. The goal came following some fantastic work from Tyler Berry, beating his man and playing an inviting through ball to Lewis, the rest quickly became history.

We did an impressive job holding onto our lead for the remainder of the half, but there was still drama to be had in the closing stages of the game. Stockport’s Kylan Depeiza seeing red following a fight that broke out due to the result of a highly reckless tackle by the player on the edge of our box.

We are delighted to have won yesterday and look forwarded to continuing our FA Cup journey. Firstly we must prepare to welcome South Liverpool to our new home next weekend.

Photo credit: Deborah

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