Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League

Premier Division

Tuesday 7th September 2021

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 18.01

North Gawber Colliery 1 Jubilee Sports 1, attendance 72

24’ 0-1

43’ 1-1

@ Woolley Miners Welfare

Woolley Colliery Road

Darton

S75 5JA

No Admission or Programme.

This ground has been on my ‘to do’ list for years. It hosted Northern Counties (East) League football up until the end of 1989/90 season (I was only just starting to tick off non-League grounds around this time, so had plenty more others to do, never thinking I would ever drop to this level !) when it was home to Woolley Miners Welfare F.C. It has remained in good condition, surprisingly avoiding any major vandalism, (the perimeter rail being almost complete and the stand is still impressive, although now minus any seats), although judging by the empty alcohol bottles and cans strewn across the floor of the stand, then sadly, this might not remain the case.

This was the first game of the season for North Gawber Colliery (the 2018/19 league winners in the last completed season before COVID-19 struck), whilst Jubilee Sports had lost their opening match 0-7 at home to Swinton Athletic. I half expected this to be a comfortable home win, but despite dominating for long periods, NGC just didn’t convert their chances. Jubilee scored against the run of play, their striker latching on to a through ball, before beating the ‘keeper and finishing from a tight angle and the inevitable equaliser came just before halftime, a 30 yard free kick that the ‘keeper got a hand to, but couldn’t keep out. The second half followed a similar pattern to the first and in the end Jubilee could have nicked all three points, but they missed a penalty in the dying minutes, the kick sent high over the crossbar.

We had kicked off just a minute behind schedule and with the match officials/teams staying on the pitch for halftime (the changing rooms are the far side of the cricket pitch), we were done and dusted for 19.37.