Ashbourne Summer League

League Cup Final

Saturday 29th June 2019

Kick Off 19.00 Actual 19.04

Doveridge 2 Red Lion 0, attendance 54

51’ 1-0

60’ 2-0

@ Mappleton Playing Field

Mapleton Road (near Okeover Arms pub)

Mappleton

DE6 2AB

£2 Admission

No Programme.

It is seven years since I last watched a game in this league and it was six years before that when I saw my previous one. I had watched seven games at one time, but got fed up with the poor standard of football on offer and couldn’t believe that many of the grounds were nothing more than a very poorly cut piece of grass, out in the middle of nowhere, where players got changed next to their cars as there were not even changing rooms on site. It is certainly not worth making a special journey for, but as I had been in Coventry during the afternoon for the rugby league, and the fact that it was only an hour and a quarter drive from there, then it made sense to do tonight’s match. The village of ‘Mappleton’ (which is what the signpost says when entering the village) is a couple of miles north west of Ashbourne, although Google Maps and my SatNav spell it ‘Mapleton’, which is also what the sign post said when leaving Ashbourne.

The match was like watching ‘attack versus defence’, as Red Lion looked to take the game to penalties, as they had obviously decided that was their best, or only, chance of winning the match. They defended brilliantly, keeping it scoreless until halftime, but having conceded a goal just six minutes into the second half meant their plan had failed. They conceded a second goal on the hour mark, which made little difference to the outcome, as they would never have scored anyway.