Wearside League

Division 1

Friday 28th January 2022

Kick Off 19.00 Actual 19.03

Richmond Town 1 Shildon Reserves 1, attendance 155

52’ 1-0

70’ 1-1

@ The Dave Clark Arena

Richmond School

Darlington Road

Richmond

DL10 7BQ

£3 Admission

No Programme.

The Dave Clark Arena is actually just a 3G cage with a spectator area along three quarters of one side of the pitch. Despite tonight’s match only being 10th versus 13th in the league table, it attracted a superb crowd of 155, although it means many get a poor view, such is the layout at these awful set ups, that are not really fit for purpose when more than one man and his dog turn up. It is certainly not a patch on their old ground, but then again, not many grounds are, although it was more about the backdrop of the imposing Richmond Castle towering above it, rather than the ground itself. I saw Richmond Town lose 2-4 to Cleator Moor Celtic in the Shipowners Charity Cup Final there on 27th May 2017, in front of 349 spectators.

The two sides were evenly matched and although both teams hit the crossbar, it was still goalless at the break. Richmond broke the deadlock seven minutes into the second half, when former Middlesbrough Youth team player Nathan Fisher (also played in Scottish League for Gretna and at Chester-le-Street Town and Gateshead amongst a handful of North East clubs) fired into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Shildon levelled when a through ball was touched past the on rushing ’keeper with twenty minutes left. Richmond had an effort clip the outside of the post in stoppage time, but the draw was a fair result.

Photo opportunities were limited tonight, because if you moved from your viewing point, then you wouldn’t get your place back.