Witton Albion fixtures and results, 2006–07 to 2008–09

The fixtures page was the most heavily linked part of the old Witton Albion website after the homepage. It always showed the current season, so the Internet Archive's copies, taken at intervals between 2007 and 2009, preserve three different lists. They are reproduced here season by season.

Unless stated otherwise, scores are in home–away order, exactly as the club printed them, and the Result column is from Witton Albion's point of view. Where the club's own entry turned out to be wrong, the table shows the correct score with a numbered note explaining the change.

2007–08: runners-up with 89 points

Manager: Jim Vince. Northern Premier League Premier Division: 2nd of 21, played 40, won 27, drew 8, lost 5, goals 84–28, 89 points.

Witton took over at the top in November and led by as many as fourteen points before Fleetwood Town overhauled them in mid-April. At Wincham Park they were unbeaten in their first fifteen league matches, winning fourteen and drawing one, and then lost two of the last five: 3–0 to Fleetwood on Easter Monday and 3–0 to Worksop Town on the final day. The season ended with a play-off semi-final lost on penalties to Buxton.

The average attendance at home league matches was 483. The highest was 1,014 for the Fleetwood game and the lowest 339, against Kendal Town in October.

In the cups Witton went out of the FA Cup at the first attempt, reached the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy after scoring eleven goals in two ties, and got to the last eight of the League Challenge Cup.

Notes to the 2007–08 table:

1. Prescot Cables, FA Cup. The club's list gives 2–1. The Football Club History Database records the first qualifying round tie as a 1–2 home defeat, and Witton did not play in the next round.
2. Colwyn Bay, League Challenge Cup. Listed as 2–4. The club's own headline for its report says the tie went to extra time and penalties, so this may be the shoot-out score rather than the score of the match. Witton went through.
3. Matlock Town away. The club's list gives Matlock Town 2–0 Witton Albion. The published results grid for the division gives 0–2, a Witton win, and only that reading makes the list add up to the final league table.
4. Lincoln United. No attendance was entered on the fixtures page. The figure of 366 is from the club's match report.
5. Buxton, play-off semi-final. The list shows "5–6", the penalty shoot-out score. The match finished 1–1 after extra time.

2008–09: relegation

Managers: Nigel Deeley until 2 November 2008, then Gary Finley. Northern Premier League Premier Division: 20th of 22, played 42, won 12, drew 6, lost 24, goals 53–73, 42 points. Relegated.

Almost the whole of the 2007–08 squad left in the summer after the playing budget was cut. The new side took seven points from its first three matches, including a 3–1 win at Prescot Cables, and then lost eleven league matches in a row between 9 September and 15 November. Deeley was dismissed after the ninth.

The list below is complete to 14 March 2009; the fixtures page was last archived on 21 March. At that point it showed 34 league results: 12 wins, 3 draws and 19 defeats. The final table also shows 12 wins, so, if the list is accurate, none of the last eight league matches was won. The final standings are on the 2008–09 league table page.

The 2008–09 fixtures page did not say which competition each match belonged to. The labels here come from the club's match console, which listed the same fixtures and marked every cup tie. That console also lists a Mid-Cheshire Senior Cup final against Congleton Town on 6 April 2009, which was arranged after the fixtures page was last archived; no result survives.

"Postponed" marks a fixture whose date had passed without a score being entered; each was replayed later in the list or was still outstanding. "To be played" marks fixtures dated after the last archived copy.

2006–07: the first page only

Manager: Jim Vince. Northern Premier League Premier Division: 2nd of 22, played 42, won 24, drew 8, lost 10, goals 90–48, 80 points.

Witton finished level on points with the champions, Burscough, and lost the title by one goal on goal difference. They beat Matlock Town 4–2 in the play-off semi-final and lost the final 3–1 to AFC Telford United.

In its first form the club website spread the results over several pages, and only the first was ever archived. It covers the opening fifteen matches, to 3 October 2006. In this list the score is given with Witton Albion's goals first, whatever the venue; that was checked against the published results for both home and away matches.

The cup results missing from the archived page are on record elsewhere. In the FA Cup, after beating Sheffield and Vauxhall Motors, Witton drew 1–1 at home with Farsley Celtic in the third qualifying round and lost the replay 1–0. In the FA Trophy they beat Fleetwood Town, Alsager Town, Stamford and Woodley Sports before losing 1–0 at home to Rushden & Diamonds in the second round.

How these tables were made

The rows were not retyped. A script reads the archived pages and writes the tables, so every date, score and attendance is the one the club published. The script uses the latest archived copy of each season's list, because fixtures that were postponed and rearranged appear on their original dates in earlier copies.

The 2007–08 list was then tested against the final league table. As archived it gave Witton 26 wins and a goal record of 82–30, one win and two goals out. Reversing the single away result at Matlock, as independent records require, brings it to 27 wins and 84–28, an exact match. The same test could not be completed for 2008–09 because the list stops before the end of the season.