United Counties League

Division 1

Wednesday 27th September 2023

Kick Off 19.45 On Time!

Southwell City 5 Sandiacre Town 3, attendance 70

15’ 0-1

21’ 1-1

24’ 2-1

31’ 2-2

40’ 3-2

49’ 4-2

60’ 5-2

79’ 5-3

@ Centenary Sports Ground

Fiskerton Road

Brinkley

NT25 0TH

£5 Admission

Programme free, 24 pages.

I was pleased to have ignored the weather forecast, where heavy rain and high winds were forecast and decided to head for Southwell, which would see the completion of the United Counties League for me once again. I arrived to see a huge puddle at the car park entrance, but it looked more down to the poor quality of the surface, rather than a water logging problem and it was good to see the pitch was in superb condition. The clubhouse, which is in the near left hand corner of the ground as you enter, was open early and did hot food and drinks. The pitch runs lengthways away from here. A small section of covered standing is on the left hand side, as are the dugouts, whilst the standard seated kit stand is opposite. The pitch is neatly fenced, with plenty of advert boards and about half the ground has hard standing.

The league positions certainly didn’t suggest this would be a great watch, as it was 19th versus 20th, with only Selston keeping these two off the bottom. Both teams had only managed two wins apiece coming into this, but tonight’s game was really entertaining, both teams contributing to a good open game. Sandiacre opened the scoring, but two goals in four minutes saw Southwell turn it round midway through the half, but Sandiacre soon hit back to make it 2-2. Five minutes before halftime Southwell regained the lead, squeezing in a shot at the near post from a tight angle to go in 3-2 ahead. They added a fourth four minutes into the second half, beating the ‘keeper at the near post again, before adding goal number five on the hour to make it 5-2. At least Sandiacre managed to get a late consolation, firing high into the roof of the net after a cross was only half cleared.

As for the weather, there was a brief shower during the first half and the wind never affected the game any worse than at any match played at this time of year. Totally trouble free journey up to Nottinghamshire. The return saw the M25 closed between J15 and J13.