Gloucestershire Northern Senior League
Division 1
Saturday 9th March 2024
Kick Off 15.00 Actual 14.59
English Bicknor 2 Tredworth Tigers 3, attendance 44
24’ 1-0
47’ 2-0
61’ 2-1
67’ 2-2 (pen)
85’ 2-3
@ Worral Hill Recreation Ground
Main Road
Worral Hill
GL17 9QF
No Admission or Programme.
I had only visited English Bicknor as recently as December 2021, when they played in the village itself, but they are now based at Worral Hill, no more than a couple of miles away as the crow flies, but just over four miles by road. I’d actually planned on coming here back in August, when they moved one of their fixtures to a Friday night, but unfortunately as I was thinking about setting off, the SatNav was showing over an hour of hold ups on the M25, let alone any problems on the M4, so I reluctantly gave up.
When heading south west along the A4136 from Gloucester, the ground is visible on the right, where you then turn in towards the village, with the entrance to the small car park about 100 yards along on the right. I’d made the 18 mile journey from Gloucester comfortably, arriving just under half an hour before kick off.
The clubhouse/changing rooms are in the near corner, next to the car park, with the pitch running lengthways away from here. The pitch is fully railed and has a set of dugouts on the right hand side, whilst opposite are two wooden dugouts, set back from the pitch slightly, which were used as seating for spectators. English Bicknor had seen their home game postponed last Saturday, but no such problems today, confirmed in a quick reply to a text message to the Secretary, sent during my earlier game.
The match affected both ends of the league table, as 14th (3rd bottom) hosted 2nd. If you’d turned up not knowing which team was in which position, you’d have assumed it was English Bicknor who were the team going for the title as they looked the better side from the off. They took the lead midway through the first half, finishing from close range, after a corner from the right wasn’t cleared and although Tredworth created a few chances, it remained 1-0 at the break. Rather oddly, considering the changing rooms are right by the pitch, both teams and Referee all stayed out at halftime. Even more strange was the fact that we had a rain shower for the entire duration and we were back underway by 15.53.
Within two minutes of the restart it was 2-0, when a ball down the right saw the striker just win the race against the ‘keeper, before hooking the ball across the face of the goal for an easy finish from another player in support. Tredworth pulled one back just after the hour, cutting in from the left before finishing into the bottom corner from 18 yards. Six minutes later it was 2-2, as the visitors converted a penalty, awarded for a foul just inside the box. Minutes later the Referee somehow failed to award another penalty to Tredworth, which looked absolutely nailed on! Neither side were settling for a point and both had chances to win it, but in the end it was Tredworth who grabbed the winner, with just five minutes left, when a through ball from inside the centre circle played a player clear and having had one touch to steady himself, he finished with a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
The defeat leaves English Bicknor three points from safety, whilst Tredworth leapfrog Longlevens Reserves at the top of the table, with the latter now two points behind, but with two games in hand. So, with Division 2 already completed, I’m left with just reigning Division 1 champions Chalford to complete all ground visits in this league now….hopefully on the main pitch this time, rather than the adjacent one they used on a Sunday morning kick off back in March 2004, when I saw them lose a Stroud Charity Cup Semi-Final on penalties to Brockworth Albion, after a 0-0 draw at ninety minutes.
