| Managers Notes!!
I would like to bring you up to date with some of the activities and signings we have made at the club and comment on the general atmosphere at the club. We have signed John Rattigan from Glaxo Fc. John has made an impressive impact jumping up two leagues and adapting to the change well. Unfortunately he will not feature for us for a few weeks due to a suspension from his previous club. We have also signed centre back Glenn Capstick from Holker Old Boys FC who will be a fantastic asset to our defence. This is an area of our game we needed to strengthen and hopefully Glen will do this for us. We have also re signed Stuart Shaw who will give us plenty of attacking options to complement Gareth Jones, and John Rattigan. Mike Kewley has also rejoined us and we look forward to Mike showing the sharpness that Preston North End saw in him to sign him as a YTS player. Mike Mitchell has signed for us and is showing great promise in the reserves and will surely feature this year in the first team. We have also signed Gavin Butler from Swarthmoor FC. Gavin is in his second spell with DUFC and can play at the back or up front. Gavin will be a very good addition to our squad.
We have had an excellent start to the West Lancashire League programme securing 4 wins form 5 games and keeping 3 clean sheets in the process. This as stated before has been a weakness in our game but the hard work and coaching we have done in pre season seems to be paying off. In the first few games we secured 2 straight wins over newly promoted local side Vickerstown. Tony and I were very pleased with these wins as the players demonstrated very good personal and team discipline against very competitive opponents. We also played some very good football which the large crowds attending both games enjoyed.
Gareth Jones it to be congratulated for his excellent scoring record for Dalton United. Gareth's performance at Burnley United away secured 3 points and a hatrick for him in our 4 nil win away from home. This meant Gareth has scored his 200th goal in the West Lancashire League and his 250th goal for Dalton United. This is a marvellous achievement by an outstanding goal scorer, excellent player with first class attitude and a nice bloke as well. Well done Gareth from the Management, Committee, your team mates an all connected with the club.
August must have been the wettest on record resulting in our opening game of the season being postponed at home to Eagley with a waterlogged pitch. The wet weather has certainly helped in keeping injuries to a minimum, with low grass burns, blisters and muscle strains being recorded. However Alan Callison, Peter Burns and Darren Thomas have worked relentlessly on the pitch preparation and have done a great job.
I have been impressed with the new management team structure for the Reserve and A team. Darren Barker has moved up from the A team to join John Postlethwaite and Ian Gordon with the reserves and has made a significant impact with his style. Chris Athersmith has moved to Player manager of the A Team joining Graham Bickerstaf. Chris brings a wealth of experience to the management team and will add great value to the development of players and the club in general.
Peter Thomas whilst supporting the A-team has took on numerous roles as Press officer liaising with the Evening Mail and Abbey FM for Radio reports. So along with his Director of Football role I think we have found the perfect job for Peter. Well done.
Overall all our 3 teams have progressed well in the early exchanges , however as we always point out it is early days yet and a number of challenges will be raised through out the season both on and off the pitch. The players all seem very relaxed and confident and are all developing nicely which hopefully will bring trophies to the table.
Jon Balm
Joint First Team Manager
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| Darren Barkers 40!!
Dalton Utd will be having a players night out on Saturday 20th Sept. This is to celabrate Darren Barkers 40th (yes he is only 40 folks!) and the birth of Gav Butlers new baby.
ALL players, managers and committee members are invited to meet at The Club at 7pm followed by a walk around the pubs of Dalton.
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| 2008/09 Season is here!!
The 2008/09 season is about to kick off in 4 days time with the Dalton United 1st team playing host to visitors Eagley on Railway Meadow (3pm K.O). We look forward to seeing a nice crowd down to get behind the players and support the club. Let's hope out 1st team can get off to winning ways with 3 points from the game. Good luck boys!
On Tuesday night we would like to welcome Vickerstown and to wish them luck for their first season in the West Lancs Premier Division. Let's hope Dalton can make it two wins out of two and start the season off with 6 points. With the players having such a good pre-season training schedule thanks to Jon Balm & Tony Callister there is a sense of excitement about this season throughout the whole club.
It's not just the players that have been working hard during the pre-season but also the club committee members who have all worked hard off the pitch trying to help bring sponsors into the club, keeping the pitch in such excellent condition and general ground. The club wouldn't be the best in the area if it wasn't for these people so well done to all the effort you have put in to get the season off to a flyer!
We have made a number of new signings during the pre-season break. We welcome Jon Rattigan and Glen Capstick to help boost the 1st team squad. We have Mark Morgan from Furness Rovers to help Darren in the 2nd team and hopefully keep our first team defenders on their toes with you knocking on the door. Stuart Shaw has made a return to the club after missing most of last year due to work and personal commitments so welcome back Shorty lad!
We are sure you will all enjoy your time with us and the players are looking forward to your initiations on the first away game!!! Good luck!!
Darren Barker has stepped up to take over the Reserves this year with help from Poss and Gordy, lets hope you can put some silverware in the cabinet this season.
Graham Bickerstaff and Chris Athersmith will be running the 3rd team this season and with a new influx of new, young players into their squad i'm sure they will be fighting for the league title this season.
Good luck to all three teams this season and hopefully we will see Dalton United at the top of each of the three leagues throughout the 2008/09 season.
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Archive Stories
Dalton United Facebook Group
Are you a member of Facebook? Would you like to upload your own pictures and videos? Do you want to leave a message or add to a discussion about a particular topic?
If your answer is YES and you are a member of Facebook then search for the group Dalton United FC. This has been designed to work alongside our club website (www.daltonunited.com) to help anyone who has been or is related to the club in any way, shape or form communicate with one another. You might have been a past or present player with stories about other players that you might want to share with everyone.
If you aren't a member of Facebook already then you will need to Sign Up with www.facebook.com before you can use the Group Section. If you sign up you can share some interesting stories about any experience you have had with Dalton United FC. I'm sure there are loads out there that you want people to know about! You might want to share your own ideas or thoughts regarding a particular topic. You will be able to do all this on www.Facebook.com until the Official Dalton United Website has these capabilities.
In our Facebook Group there is a Discussion Section, Recent News, Club Information, Photos and Videos Section where you can capture images and videos using your mobile phone and then upload them. I bet theres a few from some of the away trips the first team have had. There is a Wall to leave messages for everyone to read, Members Section showing all the members profiles registered with the Dalton United Group. You can even create events about the club to remind people of any poker events, birthday parties, player nights, end of season parties or anything that members may need to know.
This is the future for communicating club information to all of those who are related to the club and share photos with each other.
So come on Sign Up to www.facebook.com and keep in touch!
Webmaster 10/02/08
Fish spotted at Railway Meadow!!
Dalton United 3 Poulton 0. On a sticky pitch the game was taken to Poulton with a lack of football being played on their part compared to the elegant football of the Dalton Boys. The Dalton Camp was buzzing after the Christmas Period. The hard work put in over christmas at training was clearly visable with the influential midfielder Steven Gill showing that once you reach 28 years old you are reaching your peak. This was very true and was witnessed by a huge crowd on railway meadow when the Jan Molby style player scored the best goal seen on railway meadow in 60 years.
It was a great run down the right hand touch line by Gary Prosser a.k.a Ronaldo and the delivery was perfect. It managed to find the #8 (Gilly) who made a great run from his own box to the edge of the oppositions 18 yard box. He rose like a salmon in the air and produced the perfect looping header over the Poulton Keeper and into the top corner!!!! 2 Nil! The game was over by then and was only really highlighted by the great finish from Gill to take the game away from Poulton.
On a negative note, Ben Moresby was hospitalised after his nightout on the tiles. He landed on Sam Alexander when coming out for a cross (poor Sam) and injured his calf in the process. He has spent 4 nights in Furness General with a serious dead leg resulting in swelling the size of a football. We hope he makes a great recovery and is back training sooner rather than later!
Dalton's No 1 Supporter (1 guess who wrote this article ..Mr Salmon himself!) 16/01/08
Blast off at Dalton FC!!
On the 6th November 2007 Dalton United FC held their annual Fireworks Display at Railway Meadow, Dalton in Furness. Over the years there have been some excellent displays put on for the people of Dalton-in-Furness but this year has to top them all with a magnificent display of some of the best firworks ever seen in the furness area.
The gates were opened at 6:00pm with hundreds of people flooding through the gates to try and get a good place to stand, either near the Club House bar or the burger van. At 6:30pm the huge bonfire was started for the SECOND TIME in two days after it was started by some stupid local teenagers the night before. Those involved have been caught and are being dealt with by police. It is very dissapointing when these things happen because people have worked hard to make the night special for everyone and it can be spoilt be a small group of idiots thinking its fun. It is also a waste of time for the fire brigade who had to put it out at 11:30pm.
There has been alot of hard work put in on sunday morning especially after the clubs Halloween Fancy Dress Party on the Saturday night. The club would like to thank everyone for their effort they put in to make the night successful they include club members: Peter Burns, Stan, Ian Geldart, Alan Callison, Jon Balm, Tony Callister and the only club player, Steven Gill. Jon Balm said: "It has been noted that Gilly was the only player there helping out, this might help my team selection problems on Saturday!"
Last night, DUFC club member Mike Blarmire, is a well experienced qualified pyrotechnic who travels the world to perform firework displays, is the man who organised last nights display. Mike and his team worked extremely hard all day setting up the complex electronically operated fireworks display and the winner of last nights club raffle, Connor, started the fireworks off to celebrate Bonfire Night 2007.
A successful night for the club with around 1000 people coming through the gate, if the fireworks are getting better each year then imagine how good next years are going to be!!!
Steven Gill 7/11/07
Sand Rat Cleans Up At Hearts!!
On the 8th September 2007 the Dalton 1st team played away at Southports Ground against Fleetwood Hesketh where they won their 4th game on the trot! On the journey down to Southport, cards were being played on the bus, a way for the players to relax and bond with each other but 3 games of hearts later a young man from Askam that goes by the name of John Staffieri won all 3, taking a total prize money of £34.70. When we (News of the World) managed to get to speak to John about how he is going to spend his winnings he said: "I am going to go travelling around Askam with my winnings, I might buy a new pair of socks and push the boat out and buy a crate of becks! I just want to say thanks for all the support throughout the 3 games we played and I wish you all the best in the future. The most important thing about the day was us bringing 3 points back to Dalton and now won our last 4 out of 4 games....I love you mum!"
Steven Gill 9/9/07
Three and easy for Dalton!
Dalton United made it three wins in a row with a home win over Euxton Villa. The Railway meadow first team turned on the style, with goals from Gary Prosser, Gareth Jones and Danny Leech.
The win lifts Dalton up to sixth in the West Lancashire League Premier Division. Like the three teams above them, Dalton have 13 points, but having leaked 17 goals in their first five games their goal difference is still inferior.
Those defensive problems appear to have been ironed out now with John Staffieri, Ian Callison, Phil Rigg and Phil Coombe dealing with any trouble.
Hving passed the ball about neatly for the first 20mins, Dalton took the lead when a cross-come shot from Prosser went in. It was a slender lead Dalton held until half-time.
Euxton Villa came out firing at the start but Dalton weathered the storm. With an hour on the clock the home side doubled their advantage. Danny Leech headed down a cross to Gareth Jones who did the rest, vollying it into the roof of the net from 10yards out.
With 15mins to go Dalton added a third following a fine passing move. The ball landed at Danny Leeches feet who fired it into the bottom corner.
Jon Balm, co manager with Tony Callister said: "Winning breeds confidence and we have done well over the last three games. We have been conceding too many goals and need to start shutting the door on teams. We are now doing that. The midfield were excellent on Saturday, we policed their midfiled very well - lead by our 'Man-of-the-Match' Steven Gill."
Evening Mail 4/9/07
