United Counties League

Premier Division

Tuesday 10th March 2020

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.48

Shepshed Dynamo 2 Pinchbeck United 1, attendance 95 (official 110)

33’ 1-0

40’ 1-1

70’ 2-1

@ Aylestone Park F.C. 3G Pitch

Mary Linwood Ground

Saffron Lane

Leicester

LE2 6TG

£7 Admission

£1.50 Programme, 32 pages (from original match on 15th February with an insert cover added)

Shepshed had tweeted earlier this morning that they may switch the game from their own ground, to that of Aylestone Park F.C., depending how the 13.30 pitch inspection went. It didn’t go well, so it was indeed switched. The only problem was, that neither Shepshed or Pinchbeck bothered to mention on their Twitter that it was being played on the 3G pitch here (there are also two floodlit grass pitches), but after a bit of investigation, it was confirmed that it was indeed on the plastic.

The pitch is railed along the near side and has a small section of cover which has two rows of bench seating, but the view from here is poor due to the fences running intermittently along the side of the pitch. Apart from the main clubhouse, there is a separate tea bar at the entrance to the cage, so you didn’t need to traipse all the way back past the main pitch at halftime. Unfortunately, both teams and the three officials went back to the changing rooms though, so it was 20.54 before the second half got underway. I don’t watch much football at Step 5 these days, certainly not for a first time visit, so had forgotten how expensive it is….£7 to watch a game in a cage seemed excessive, but I suppose this is what non-league football has come to these days. Then again, some of the organised ground hops charge £5 to stand in a field or public park at far lower levels than this, so……

The game didn’t really appeal, apart from it being at a ground I hadn’t visited, with Shepshed sitting fourth in the league table and looking near certainties to win it, such is the amount of games they have in hand over the teams above them. It would take a failure of some scale for them to blow it. Pinchbeck, on the other hand, are bottom of the table, with just one win from their twenty matches!

Shepshed wasted chance after chance, perhaps because it was too easy, but finally broke the deadlock just after the half hour mark when a cross from the left was swept into the net. Pinchbeck offered absolutely nothing, but out of the blue they levelled it up at 1-1 five minutes before halftime, when a 25 yard free kick was fired into the top corner, but the ‘keeper should have really saved it. The second half was much of the same and Shepshed got the winner with twenty minutes left, when a fumble by the ‘keeper was followed in from close range.