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The Bucks welcome Ashton United to the Tarmac Silverlands Stadium for John McGrath’s first game in charge.
The Bucks
New Era
Buxton are beginning their first season as a full-time football club and have appointed former Burton Albion player John McGrath to take them into this.
McGrath has been manager of Mickleover since 2016 and led the Derbyshire club to the playoffs last season.
The Irishman won the Conference South and the Conference Premier as well as the Football League Third Division when he was a player.
New signings
Callum Leigh, Djavan Pedro, Jack Stobbs, Ethan Fitzhugh, Josh Williams, Will Trueman, Josh Popoola have all signed for The Bucks so far.
After a host of players left the club at the end of last season the club were faced with a big job of bringing in lots of new names.
Old faces
The Bucks did retain 4 players that were at the club last season in Tommy Elliott, Diego De Girolamo, Josh Granite and Connor Kirby.
After originally announcing that he was leaving the club after 4 and a half years, Elliott made the U turn decision to return to the club.
Opposition
Ashton United have a number of ex Bucks players and their Northern Premier League winning manager Steve Cunningham is also in charge of The Robins.
After being founded in 1878 they were originally called Hurst Football club and played in black and white stripes.
They won the playoffs in The Northern Premier League in the 2017-18 season which earnt them promotion to the National League North. However, they instantly came back down after finishing 20th out of 22 teams.
They play their games at Hurst Cross which has a 4500 capacity with 250 seats.
Actor and playwright Jonathan Sayer is co-chairman at the club.
One to watch
Jak McCourt signed for Ashton United this summer following the end of his contract at Buxton.
The 28 year old is a midfielder that has a great passing range and can find the back of the net from long range strikes.
He started out at Leicester City and won the League One playoffs with Barnsley in 2016.
Last Time Out
They last met in December 2021 where The Bucks came out on top and were 3-0 winners as they stayed top of the league. Dom Tear scored in the second half to add to first half goals from Jamie Ward and Tommy Elliott.
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