North West Counties League
Division 1 North
Tuesday 23rd November 2021
Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.01
Steeton 1 Pilkington 4, attendance 86 (official 78)
24’ 0-1 (pen)
26’ 0-2 (pen)
34’ 0-3
43’ 1-3
54’ 1-4
@ Marley Stadium
Marley Playing Fields
Marland Road
off Airevalley Road
Keighley
BD21 4BD
£5 Admission (if you book in advance, paying online, it is £5.61. Why would anyone bother?)
£2 Programme, 44 pages.
I first saw Steeton play a home game back on 15th May 2002, when they lost 3-4 versus Hall Green United in a West Riding County Amateur League Division 1 match, which was played at Doris Wells Memorial Field in Summerhill Lane, which is in the village of Steeton itself. They now play here at Marley Stadium (on yet another 3G pitch that are all too common in this league) which is part of Marley Playing Fields, where I saw Phoenix beat Field 4-1 in a West Riding County Amateur League Premier Division match back on 3rd September 1999, which was played on the railed off pitch that runs parallel to the stadium pitch.
Tonight’s game was 14th versus 4th (out of 19) in the league table (the programme didn’t even have a league table in it!). A few weeks ago I had seen Pilkington get hammered 5-1 away at South Liverpool, where they were absolutely awful and a time when they were two places higher up the league table than they are now. They were the complete opposite tonight, winning the game without having to get out of first gear.
Two penalties, in a three minute spell midway through the first half, saw them go 0-2 up and it was soon 0-3 as they totally dominated. A corner from the right was headed in to pull it back to 1-3 just before the break, but Steeton never looked like ever pulling back the two goal deficit. Pilkington sewed the game up when they made it 1-4 early in the second half and apart from an effort that bounced down off the underside of the crossbar, before being cleared, Steeton produced very little and were deservedly beaten.
This completed the North West Counties League grounds once more. It would be nice if the next new ground in this league actually has a grass pitch, rather than a boring caged pitch, but somehow, I doubt it…..
