Central welcome Heywood St James in Cup Showdown

Heywood St James will be the next side to visit Seashell’s Trust to take on Manchester Central in the Manchester Challenge Trophy. A 2-1 home win over a tough Avro Reserves side was enough to see Central through to Round Three of the competition.

Central head into this fixture off the back of a disappointing 4-2 defeat to Division One highflyers Govan & Uni of Manchester. Central found themselves a goal to the good through Paul Sholabi but struggled to follow up, finding themselves behind at the break.

Heywood St James also suffered a defeat in their last league fixture, suffering a 4-0 thumping at the hands of Moorside Rangers, making that their third loss in their last five fixtures in all competitions.

They find themselves second from bottom in the Premier Division this season, having yet to pick up their first three points of the league campaign. They may, however, find some respite in the Manchester Challenge Trophy this season, picking up their only win of the season in a 2-1 victory at Shaw Athletic.

Central, however, are struggling to gather any sort of consistency or momentum following their strong start to the season. Since picking up five victories from their opening six games, they have only managed to win two out of their last five fixtures.

A lot can be contributed to the fact they have the joint second worst defensive record in Division One, conceding 22 goals in just nine league matches. Something that manager Chris Tomkinson will be desperately searching for a solution to.

However, one major positive they can take from their start to the season is their outstanding goal record, scoring 26 goals already which is the joint most in Division One so far.

Fuad Kasali has been a major factor in this record, already notching 12 goals in just 10 Division One games, whilst venturing on his own personal goalscoring streak, netting in his last three straight matches.

However, Central should remain cautious to not rely heavily on the goalscoring of Kasali, who has scored 44% of their goals in the 22/23 season. Tomkinson must look to his whole squad for more goals if he wishes for a successful campaign.

This won’t be the first time these two sides will meet in competitive action. Both teams faced each other in Division One way back in the 2016/17 season, which saw Central go unbeaten against Heywood St James.

Central first picked up a convincing 3-0 home win in mid-October over Heywood, whilst the sides shared a stalemate when Central went to visit Heywood at the tail end of the season.

Lots has changed since these two teams met, with one side pushing for a supposedly shock title charge in Division One, whilst the other struggles to find momentum at the bottom of the Premier Division.

It will be a fascinating contest between the two sides, who both will look to continue their push for glory in the Manchester Challenge Trophy on Saturday afternoon.