Hanley Town Tuesday night

[richard webb]

I have checked on admission prices etc but otherwise the info is very much as for last September.

Club	Hanley Town FC
Game Date	Tuesday 15th September2026
Game time	7.45pm
Ground address	Potteries Park. Abbey Lane, Bucknall, Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, ST2 8AJ
Home colours	All Blue
Directions	M6 to Junction 16 taking A500 for Stoke. After approx. 8.5 miles exit, signposted to Ashbourne A52 and A5006. At traffic lights turn right and cross A500. At T junction turn left onto Copeland St. Turn left onto bridge over A500 signposted to station. Shortly you will join the A52 Leek road. Keep on this road, turning right at Holdcroft cars. Proceed into Werrington Rd. After ¼ mile turn left into Fellbrook Lane and the ground is approx quarter of mile on the left.
Parking facilities	Unfortunately parking is not allowed in the ground for spectators. Stewards will be available to assist in parking at the bottom of the lane. Please be respectful of Hanley’s neighbours.
Railway station	Stoke-on-Trent (2.2 miles)
Bus	Various services go along Werrington Rd
Admission Prices	Admission prices are Adults £10, concessions £5, 14-16 £2.
Programme price	Digital only
Disabled access and toilets	There is disabled access all around the ground, including the perimeter of the pitch and the clubhouse via a portable ramp. There is also a disabled toilet.
Carers	Carers and disabled are concession prices
Food at ground	There is a cafe inside the ground selling pies, chips, burgers, chocolate bars, coffee and tea etc but no oatcakes.
Drinks at ground	The bar has a variety of beers bit not any hand pulled pumps
Are dogs allowed	Yes, but obviously under control
Local pubs	Two pubs with real ale have been identified close to the ground serving real ales, the Travellers Rest which is on Werrington Road just beyond Fellbrook Lane and the new Finney Gardens on Bucknall Road (between Holdcroft cars and Werrington Road). To check use CAMRA | Hanley
Local places of interest	Stoke attained city status in 1925 and was the centre of the pottery industry, based on abundant local supplies of clay and coal. Probably not so well known was the steel industry but this like coal mining and much of the pottery industry, especially the iconic bottle kilns, is now closed. However, there are a number of factory shops available and run by the remaining potteries as well as museums covering the industrial past, e.g. Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, Etruria Industrial Museum on the Caldon Canal, and the Gladstone Pottery Museum. Trentham Gardens and Trentham Monkey Forest are close at hand and slightly further away is Alton Towers.
Acknowledgement	Neil Dundas, General Manager HTFC

 

[Alan Riding]

I think Rory in his interview sums the game up perfectly.

Just disappointed for everyone who made the effort to go. Where's Harry Lynn?

We did have 10 mins or so in both halves but that's not enough to gain points.

Just one other point, Niall can certainly hold his head up high. 100% commitment from start to finish. Stood out a mile above his teammates.

See everyone Saturday.

 

[Stephen Allen-Gurr]

If not already, he needs to be on a contract

 

[Nicki]

We seem (from reports) to be alternating good performances and bad ones - but only getting single points from the good ones.

How many of our goals conceded have come from set-pieces? Feels like it might be as high as 75-80%. I think it’s too much to expect Max to be totally commanding so the more experienced players need to be stepping up to organise better. On a positive note that should be something that’s addressable. It doesn’t seem like many teams are breaking us down in open play.

It’s still only mid-September but there’s no time like the present to get on top of things.

 

[Briswa]

Completely outplayed by a well organised and dominant Hanley tonight. Very disappointing effort-Hanley never let us settle and we could not cope against their long throw and general play.
Biggest cause for concern is the midfield. Not for the first time this season we were overrun, too slow and created nothing. Matt Woolley and Blake Robinson for me are not good enough at this level and both produce nothing.
Never look like scoring a goal either with a lack of service from midfield and players clearly not good enough. Spinelli can hold the ball up well but that’s about it.
The only good thing was Niall Osborne’s performance. He is consistently above the rest of the team in his play.
I know we are without key players due to injury which does not help.
I normally do not like singling on players names for criticism but tonight’s effort was so disappointing that I felt I had too.
Hoping for vast improvement on Saturday.

 

[Mark Riding]

Hanley have a game plan: set pieces. They're very good at it and we're not so good defending them. We seem to be too quiet without Jonah - does no one talk at the back?

We also have an issue with defenders trying to rush the ball out - not giving it to the midfield but pumping it over their heads to a lone striker, who is being towered over by two 6ft centre backs. We're then suprised that it comes straight back at us and we're defending again.

On the odd occasion where we did get it fed through the midfield, the play was good and we looked threatening from wide. There were other times where there just didn't seem to be any energy or fight to recover the ball - the Vauxhall game was a million miles off this.

I think Rory has some difficult decisions coming up, as some of the players on the pitch last night are not at this level be that fitness or skill. Some are further off than others though and that needs sorting ASAP.

I don't like picking names, but given he's named above - I disagree about Blake. I think there's a player there but he's trying to do everything everywhere. When there's only two in the center of midfield then that's a problem.

 

[JAS94]

I don't like picking names, but given he's named above - I disagree about Blake. I think there's a player there but he's trying to do everything everywhere. When there's only two in the center of midfield then that's a problem.

Agree with most of this point, for me a 2 works if the co-partner outs the same levels in - the effort and energy is what we’ve lacked for a while in that midfield, imho. When he’s got a Jonah in there too with him, the midfield battle is much more present and we’ve looked good. Unfortunately injuries/suspensions have limited the duo playing together since the opening games (when we picked up most of our results).

As for another mentioned by Briswa, I’m not surprised 3 years later that they appear to be struggling again at this level. As for energy levels, they could easily have been disputed long before now but have regularly been overlooked.

 

[Graham Spencer]

Think we would all liked to have more points at this stage, but let’s not forget we’re a very new squad and setting in. I believe Rory will get it right and he is trying hard, so let’s stick together, back him and the team all the way.
We will start to move up the table and we have got to be positive, now it’s not the time to loose faith
See everyone on Saturday

 

[Ben]

I agree with Graham’s point about a settled squad.

We didn’t have one going into this season unlike Hanley and most other teams for reasons we all know. The situation has been exacerbated further by injuries to key players and who any team would miss.

Hopefully these players can return soon and in the meantime we can start picking up some points starting with a big game on Saturday against fellow early strugglers Nantwich.

 

[Shona]

Last nights performance felt very disheartening. Missing key players doesn't help but when there are certain ones on the pitch who do nothing - the mind boggles - then on the other hand we have the likes of Osbourne, Farmer and Crane who give it their all. We can't shy away from the ball. We have wingers on the pitch and they need to be utilised. I know we are still a very new team and we need to remember that it has virtually been a full new rebuild. I strongly believe that Rory has a plan and that things will improve.

On to Saturday we go

 

[Jack Owen]

Not here to make excuses for last night's performance. It was woeful and Rory said as much in his interview with me post-game.

However, at any level of football, if you have 7 first team players injured and your best defender suspended, you will struggle to compete.

Considering the position Rory found himself in when taking over, 6 players left from the previous season (Jonah, Matt & Jack Woolley, McGrath, Osborne and Mitchell) and taking over in June (Not starting fully until late June at that) it was always going to be an incredibly difficult task. But I'm happy with what we had with everyone fully fit and available.

I have been working closely with Rory, Danny, James and everyone else in the management team and I can assure supporters they are working their arses off for 1874 and to achieve what we all want this season and I believe if we had a fully fit squad, we wouldn't have had the recent results (Padiham, Colls and Hanley)

Keep the faith and get to Townfield on Saturday. Fetch someone with you and lets keep growing our crowds and get fully behind the lads. Up the 74'

 

[Shona]

Not here to make excuses for last night's performance. It was woeful and Rory said as much in his interview with me post-game.

However, at any level of football, if you have 7 first team players injured and your best defender suspended, you will struggle to compete.

Considering the position Rory found himself in when taking over, 6 players left from the previous season (Jonah, Matt & Jack Woolley, McGrath, Osborne and Mitchell) and taking over in June (Not starting fully until late June at that) it was always going to be an incredibly difficult task. But I'm happy with what we had with everyone fully fit and available.

I have been working closely with Rory, Danny, James and everyone else in the management team and I can assure supporters they are working their arses off for 1874 and to achieve what we all want this season and I believe if we had a fully fit squad, we wouldn't have had the recent results (Padiham, Colls and Hanley)

Keep the faith and get to Townfield on Saturday. Fetch someone with you and lets keep growing our crowds and get fully behind the lads. Up the 74'

Agree with you here Jack with those who are injured and suspended we win these games! Can clearly see Rory and the team are trying and I am positive that they will get there. There aren't many management teams who could do what they have done on such a short space of time and we should be so proud of them!

We need to back them all! Be loud and proud! We got behind the team to push up to Step 4. Let's get behind to stay here!

Be loud and proud Saturday - we need to be whether we are winning, losing or drawing!

 

[Briswa]

I accept that we are short of key players and everyone at the club is trying hard to improve tbut I still feel strongly that we have players who will never be up to the standard required in this division. I am not the only one who thinks this but I will be very happy to be proved wrong.

 

[Ben]

I accept that we are short of key players and everyone at the club is trying hard to improve tbut I still feel strongly that we have players who will never be up to the standard required in this division. I am not the only one who thinks this but I will be very happy to be proved wrong.

I still believe a core squad based around Tom Mitchell, Niall Osborne, Elliot Coleman, Mark Jones, John McGrath etc is capable of competing at this level.

So I think it’s hard to properly make a judgement until we’re back to full strength. Happy to discuss more with you on Saturday