Lancaster City travel to Warrington Rylands in penultimate game of the season 

Lancaster City will travel to Warrington Rylands in the penultimate game of the season.

The Dolly Blues are currently in eighth in the NPL Premier Division and will be full of confidence as they make their way to Gorsey Lane - they have won their last three games.

Lancaster are five points away from the playoff spots with two games to go and teams around them have games in hand so, while a place in the top five is a very tough ask, there is nothing to say they can’t have a strong end to the season.

They have already bettered the points tally they accumulated last season - they sit on 59 points, whereas they finished on 58 points in the 2022/23 campaign.

The Dolly Blues’ last home game of the season was last Saturday, when they came from a goal down to beat Gainsborough Trinity 2-1. 

The club announced this week that they averaged a home attendance of 454 for Northern Premier League games across the 2023/24 campaign, which is the highest since 1978 and an increase of 17% on last season.

A trip to Warrington Rylands awaits Lancaster City this weekend.

Runaway leaders Radcliffe are all but confirmed as champions of the league on 83 points - they have three games left to play - but second place Rylands (72 points) are bidding to finish as best of the rest.

The fact that Macclesfield - currently third on 68 points - have two games in hand on both Radcliffe and Rylands, is the only reason Radcliffe are not mathematically up as champions. 

The Silkmen are Warrington Rylands’ biggest threat to finishing second.

The Gorsey Lane side have been in fine form of late.

After a 4-1 defeat to Gainsborough Trinity - who were on a run of eight wins in nine before losing to Lancaster - towards the end of February, Rylands have won six and drawn one of their last seven games. 

Their most recent home win was against Marine, a team they could well face at some stage in the playoffs. 

They beat the Mariners 2-0.

They are the team with the least number of league losses this season (5), all of those coming on home turf. 

The reverse fixture at The Giant Axe in October finished 0-0.

Adama Sidibeh, arguably the most impressive player in that game, was signed by Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone in the winter transfer window.

Sidibeh notched up 15 goals in 29 games for Warrington Rylands before his move to Scotland, but it's clear from their league position that he wasn't the only impressive forward player the Blues have at their disposal.

Their most threatening player goalscoring-wise is Mo Touray, who has scored 16 times this season. 

Warrington Rylands v Lancaster City kicks off at 3pm on Saturday (April 13) at Gorsey Lane. 

You can still get your footballing fix at The Giant Axe this weekend: Lancaster City Ladies take on Blackburn Eagles Ladies on Sunday (April 14) at 2pm.