Northern Premier League

Division 1 North

Tuesday 19th September 2017

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.46

Scarborough Athletic 4 Mossley 1,  attendance 819

5′ 1-0

45′ + 2, 1-1

59′ 2-1 (pen)

71′ 3-1

90′ + 1, 4-1

@ Flamingo Land Stadium

Scarborough Sports Village

Ashburn Road

YO11 2JW

£10 Admission

£2 Programme

20p Team Sheet.

Back on 14th October 1989, I visited the McCain Stadium, in Seamer Road, when I saw Scarborough 3 Grimsby Town 1, attendance 2,828, in Division 4 of the Football League. Since then, Scarborough were wound up in the High Court in 2007 and the stadium was also to disappear and the site is now a Lidl supermarket.

Scarborough Athletic were then formed, competing in the Northern Counties (East) League, playing their home matches at Queensgate, home of Bridlington Town, some 18 miles down the coast. This year they have ‘returned’ to the town, at their brand new 2,070 capacity (250 seats) stadium, complete with 3G pitch.

Quite what sort of view spectators would actually have if the attendance was anything near the quoted capacity is hard to say. Tonight, with just over 800 here, it wasn’t great. It is quite clear that if the club are to progress, the stadium will need quite a bit of work to accommodate increased numbers through the gate, but it will get them by in the mean time. Of course, they might never get back to the heights of the Football League.

It was a good job Boro scored early, as Mossley looked content to play for a 0-0 draw. They still lacked adventure having conceded so early in the game and the eventual 4-1 score line was a good reflection of the way the game went. Goals number three and four for the hosts were superb strikes. I would go as far to say that this was easily the best match I have seen this season and it kept the interest throughout, despite the visitors negative attitude.

£10 admission is a bit steep for this level of football, in my opinion, and the programme is rubbish for £2. It was nice to park at the stadium for free and it took less than five minutes to get away afterwards. At least the Northern Premier League is re-completed.

Gwent County League

Division 2

Monday 18th September 2017

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.01

Ynysddu Welfare 3 Machen 0,  attendance 75

27′ 1-0

57′ 2-0

64′ 3-0

@ Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre, 3G Pitch

Coed Cae Ddu Road

Blackwood

NP12 2DA

No admission

Programme, free, 32 pages.

The first thing to note here, is the superb programme they issue, (produced by Manager Benjamin Murphy) which is free, and puts many clubs to shame higher up in the game who produce far inferior programmes to this, but have the cheek to charge £2 for them !

The club are now playing out of their own village, having left Ynysddu Welfare Park (visited 30th September 2003, 1-1 versus Cwmaman Institute, South Wales Amateur League Division 1) for the 3G pitch here at the Leisure Centre. We were told that despite being relatively new, this site is to be sold off for housing, but apparently there is already a replacement facility built nearby, so another visit to the valleys will have to be made some day.

As for the game, which was 3rd v 7th, Ynysddu were the better side throughout, with the third goal being the pick of the bunch. The win now sees them go second in the league table behind Wattsville, who are top by way of a superior goal difference.

Belgium

Limburg Provincial 1

Sunday 17th September 2017

Kick Off 15.00  Actual 15.02

S.V. Herkol 2 K.V.V. Weerstand Koersel 2,  attendance 141

12′ 0-1

57′ 1-1

78′ 2-1

86′ 2-2

@ Herent

3910 Neerpelt

€8 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

S.V. Herkol are newly promoted into Provincial 1 this season. On this performance I don’t think either club will be challenging for promotion into the Belgian League system at the end of the season, although the game itself was very entertaining as a neutral, especially the second half.

Pretty uneventful journey outbound, but once again the UK Passport Control were pathetically slow on the return journey, which caused us to miss our 20.36 train, having queued for 45 minutes once through the check-in, but instead were on the 20.50.

Oxfordshire Senior League

Premier Division

Saturday 16th September 2017

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

Freeland 3 Chalgrove Cavaliers 0,  attendance 16

31′ 1-0

57′ 2-0

77′ 3-0

@ Freeland Village Hall

Wroslyn Road

Freeland

OX29 8AL

No admission or programme.

Early days, but this was 3rd v 6th. A young Chalgrove team competed well throughout, but the hosts had that extra bit of quality and were deserved winners. Having decided to give up the evening match that I had intended to do when leaving home this morning, I stuck with my original choice of Freeland for my afternoon game, as I had seen them away at Mansfield Road, towards the end of last season, when they were a very entertaining team to watch. Nothing looks to have changed.

North Berks League

Division 3

Saturday 16th September 2017

Kick Off 10.45 Actual 10.52

Drayton 7 Uffington United 1,  attendance 92 

8′ 1-0

16′ 2-0

29′ 3-0

51′ 4-0

55′ 5-0 (pen)

57′ 6-0

67′ 6-1

69′ 7-1

@ Diamond Light Source

Harwell Science and Innovation Campus

Chilton

OX11 0DE

£4 Admission, including programme *

* As I will not buy programmes on ground hops organised by Groundhop UK, I jokingly asked the girl on the gate if it was any cheaper to get in if I didn’t want the programme. “Go on then, £2” was the reply. Still £2 more than any other game in this league, but much better than the extortionate £4 that Groundhop UK force the clubs to charge for this level of football.

This was the first of three matches today on the ‘North Berks League Hop’. This match was to be a ‘one off’ at this ground, as it has never been used previously by a Saturday club. Drayton have featured on a previous NBL Hop, when the game was staged on their proper ground in the village, a few miles north of here.

On arrival, it became apparent that both teams were in yellow and black. Both having black shorts and socks, but the Drayton shirts had black stripes. However, due to the colour clash, Drayton played with their shirts inside out, which looked more of a clash than when they were the correct way……plus it meant they had no numbers visible !

This must have been embarrassing for the North Berks League officials in attendance, especially when they went round trying to sell copies of the league handbook, which clearly neither of today’s clubs had bothered to reference following the cock up with the kits !

Even the programme (I was shown a copy by someone) could have done with proof reading, as the front cover stated the ground address as being in ChiltERN, rather than the correct spelling of the village ChiltON !!!!

Two very poor teams, with Uffington being absolutely awful. The only decent player on view was the lad up front for Drayton who bagged four goals. No idea what his number was…… and once again the attendance figure was inflated, with the official attendance according to Groundhop UK being 112.

I had already seen a match at the middle game on the schedule, so was planning to go elsewhere, before returning to take in the third game. After watching this farce, I decided to cut my treble down to a double instead and not bother with the evening match at Westminster.

Belgium

West Vlaanderen Provincial 2A

Friday 15th September 2017

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 19.58

K.F.C. Meulebeke 1 K.S.V. Diksmuide 1,  attendance 149

23′ 1-0 (pen)

38′ 1-1

@ Dr. Leo Abeele Stadion

Inglemunstersteenweg 11

(entrance via Ter Borchtlaan)

8760 Meulebeke

€6 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

This was 6th v 1st. Diksmuide have played as high as the third division of the Belgian League and were relegated back into the Provincial league less than 10 years ago.

Diksmuide had a player sent off for a handball that led to Meulebeke taking the lead from the penalty spot, but they were well worth the draw, and even had a second player red carded in the last minute for an over the top tackle.

Delayed both ways on The Tunnel……9 minutes late going out, due to a re-timed schedule, then 7 minutes late on the return, this time thanks to the UK Passport checks causing massive queues, despite the time of night. It doesn’t help when only one booth is open !

Independent Schools F.A. Cup

Preliminary Round

Wednesday 13th September 2017

Kick Off 15.15. On Time

Lingfield College 4 Trinity School, Croydon 4 (AET) 7-6 penalties,  attendance 20

9′ 1-0 (pen)

14′ 1-1

30′ 1-2

40′ 1-3

55′ 2-3

73′ 3-3

82′ 3-4

86′ 4-4

@ Lingfield College

St. Pier’s Lane

Lingfield

RH7 6PN

No admission or programme.

The senior competition of the Independent Schools F.A. involves the U-19 age groups, where matches are 80 minutes duration and extra time, if required, is played as 2 x 10 minute periods.

There wasn’t much between these two teams. The penalties were all scored up until it was 6-6. Trinity, who had gone first, missed their next two, with Lingfield missing their first chance to win it, but scoring the next kick to advance to the 1st Round, where they will visit Bolton School.

Cheltenham League

Junior Charity Cup

Group Match

Tuesday 12th September 2017

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 18.05

R.S.G. 5 Southside Star 3,  attendance 13

2′ 0-1

22′ 1-1

29′ 1-2

37′ 2-2

62′ 2-3

64′ 3-3

75′ 4-3

90′ 5-3 (pen)

@ Springfields Park

Springbank Way

Cheltenham

GL51 0LT

No admission or programme.

This was to be my final ‘early kick off’ as the nights now begin to draw in. Despite kicking off five minutes late, the Referee still played the full 45 minutes each way, as well as a couple of minutes stoppage time in each half, so it was very gloomy when this finished at 19.43.

R.S.G. had to win this match to progress from the group. A very even contest, that could have gone either way and it was only settled when the hosts scored a last minute penalty, the visitors having had a man sent off for dissent following the award of the spot kick.

F.A. Vase

1st Qualifying Round

Sunday 10th September 2017

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Coventry United 3 Tipton Town 1,  attendance 282

38′ 0-1

50′ 1-1

58′ 2-1

83′ 3-1

@ Butts Park Arena ( Coventry R.U.F.C.)

Butts Road

Coventry

CV1 3GE

£7 Admission

£1.50 Programme, 16 pages

Free Pocket Guide, 40 pages.

Butts Park Arena was built in 2004 and has a capacity of 3,000, which is basically the number of seats in the main stand. It is mainly used for rugby and has been home to Coventry R.U.F.C. since it opened, as well as Coventry Bears R.L.F.C.(I visited on 5th September 2004, 36-18, versus Sheffield Hilsborough Hawks, National League 3) and from 2005-2010 the Coventry Jets American Football team also played here. This season, it has also become home to Coventry United, who were formed in 2013 and started life at The Alan Higgs Centre. On the pitch they have had a very successful start, winning promotion from the Midland Division 3 in 2014, then being champions of Division 2 the following season, before winning Division 1 in 2016. They are currently top of the Premier Division, having won five and drawn one, of their opening six league matches.

There looked like there might have been a cup shock when the visitors, from West Midlands (Regional) League Division 1, took the lead just before halftime, although once they were pegged back, they never looked capable of scoring another goal and Coventry comfortably progressed to the next round.

Despite the ground being floodlit, the chance to visit on a Sunday was too good to miss. Others were obviously thinking the same, as incredibly, almost a third of the attendance were ground hoppers !