Football League Youth Alliance
North Division
Saturday 18th January 2025
Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.02
Hartlepool United U18 3 Burton Albion U18 4, attendance 39
34’ 0-1
37’ 0-2
41’ 0-3 (pen)
42’ 1-3
47’ 2-3
61’ 3-3
90’ + 4, 3-4
@ Blackhall Welfare Park
Eleventh Street
Blackhall Colliery
TS27 4LX
No Admission or Programme.
Having had to scrape ice off the windscreen at my hotel, I was pleased to see that on arrival in Blackhall Colliery, some 35 or so miles down the coast, it was hovering between 2.5 and 3 degrees and despite evidence of an overnight frost, the pitch was in full sunshine and the cones were being placed ready for the warm ups. Unfortunately though, the match was not kicking off until noon, rather than the 11 o’clock kick off advertised on the Football League newsletter. Apparently, it had been changed some time yesterday. It meant my intended double was no longer possible, but I did have a 3 o’clock kick off to go with the morning game and at 11.15 the home club had tweeted there were no problems with the pitch, so it was all good after all, although a little disappointing to use up a floodlit ground visit on a Saturday.
Ordinarily, I’d have given the youth game a miss and headed off for a non floodlit ground elsewhere, but Blackhall Welfare Park is a ground well worth doing. It is railed on three sides, with just the goal end backing onto Eleventh Street lacking a barrier. There’s a pair of proper dugouts too, whilst the teams get changed in the cricket pavilion, just the other side of the fence, where there’s also a kids playground. Grass banking along one side of the ground offers a raised view, although it was much colder that side, as it remained almost entirely in the shade.
It was a bit of a slow burner, but once Burton opened the scoring just after the half hour mark, it burst into life. Two more goals in the next five minutes, the third of which was a penalty, saw it become 0-3 and the game looked to be over as a contest. However, Hartlepool hit back immediately, to go in 1-3 down at the break and within two minutes of the restart it was 2-3, finishing from just inside the box after Burton failed to clear a cross. It was 3-3 just after the hour mark, when the ‘keeper saved a shot from a striker cutting inside, but it fell perfectly for a player following in and he finished from a tight angle. It looked like ending in a draw, but Burton won it four minutes into stoppage time, when a player wriggled past three defenders before pulling the ball back across the 6 yard box and the ball fell perfectly for an easy side footed finish from five yards.
