Central Midlands Alliance League
Premier Division North
Friday 8th November 2024
Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.03
Kiveton Miners Welfare 1 Hatfield Town 1, attendance 79
25’ 1-0
62’ 1-1
@ Olympic Legacy Park Community Stadium
Worksop Road
Attercliffe
Sheffield
S9 3TL
£4 Admission
£2 Programme available, didn’t bother buying.
The Olympic Legacy Park Stadium was opened in 2022, built on part of the former site of the Don Valley Stadium, which itself was only opened in 1990 and subsequently closed in 2013, before being demolished over the following twelve months or so. The former ground had a 25,000 capacity, built to host the 1991 World Student Games and was somewhere I’d visited three times, twice for football (Sheffield United Reserves 1 Sunderland Reserves 4 Central League Div 1 December 1996 and Rotherham United 2 Rochdale 1 Football League, League 2 in August 2009) and once for rugby league (Sheffield Eagles 19 Featherstone Rovers 12 Challenge Cup 1st Round February 1991). The new stadium has a 3G pitch and seated stand for just over 700 and is a rarity in the fact that spectators have access to all four sides of the pitch, although due to the rugby markings (Sheffield Eagles are also based here), you are set back from the action and the rugby posts remain in place behind each goal. Even this sized ground is far too big for this level of football (the official crowd was 15 higher than my headcount) and the only facility available to spectators was the toilets. The home club did set up a temporary ‘tea bar’ on a table at the entrance, where admission money was collected and a match day programme was available to those who wanted one. At least the car parking was free, although parking restrictions were not in place in the surrounding streets for an evening game.
The match was 12th (out of 16) versus 5th in the league table and was well contested throughout. Kiveton took the lead midway through the first half, cutting inside before finishing left footed into the bottom corner from the edge of the 18 yard box. Hatfield thought they’d levelled the scores ten minutes before halftime, but the effort was disallowed for offside and the home ‘keeper made three or four really good saves in the last few minutes, to see them go in 1-0 up at the break. The second half created fewer chances, but the visitors grabbed an equaliser just after the hour mark, when a ball in from the left was finished into the far corner.
After tonight I’m left with just S.J.R. Worksop to visit in this division. As for Olympic Legacy Park, I’ll be back for a Sheffield Eagles game sometime, probably next Summer.
