Next up for the Y&E is a trip to County Durham to face Crook Town. The game kicks off at 3pm at Sir Tom Cowie Millfield (DL15 9PW). Thanks once again to Dragontail Consulting for sponsoring our away games this season.

Crook got off to a mixed start to the season with a few defeats, but a 4-1 win at home against Redcar Town kickstarted an excellent run of form, taking 13 points from their last six games. That run included coming back from 4-0 down to draw 4-4 against Thornaby, a 1-0 home win against Blyth Town, and a 3-0 home win against Newton Aycliffe. Their last defeat was a 4-2 loss away at Easington Colliery back at the start of September. The Northern League fixture computer has given Crook a run of five home games in a row through September, ours being the fifth.

They currently sit in 11th place in the league on 16 points. Their record is P12 W5 D1 L6. We have yet to play them in the league, but we did visit the impressive Sir Tom Cowie Millfield in pre-season before the 25/26 campaign. Their danger men are big centre-forward Joe Bates, who has lined up against us for Jarrow and Esh Winning amongst other clubs, and also experienced striker Glen Hargreave.

As for the Y&E, it’s another tough game against an in-form side. After two games where we dominated possession in the second halves, Jacko and the management team will be looking for us to create and take more chances in front of goal. There will be late fitness checks on a few of the squad following knocks picked up in the past couple of games. As ever, there will be a few decisions for Jacko to make when picking the squad.

With no Boro game, hopefully there will be plenty of Y&E supporters at the game backing the lads to bring home the three points. We’ll see you there!

⚪️🔵🦅

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