North West Counties League
Division 1 North
Friday 15th October 2021
Kick Off 19.30 Actual 19.34
South Liverpool 5 Pilkington 1, attendance 241 (Official 204)
13’ 1-0
16’ 2-0
46’ 3-0
50’ 4-0
62’ 5-0
80’ 5-1
@ Jericho Lane Sports Hub, 3G Pitch 1
Otterspool Drive
Liverpool
L17 5AR
£5 Admission
£1 Programme, 24 pages.
The journey north had been horrendous. With the M6 closed at Junction 16 it meant there were reports of thirteen mile tailbacks and subsequently all the surrounding routes were gridlocked. It had taken just under six hours driving time. You do question whether it is worth the effort, for yet another of these dreadful 3G caged grounds, but if you want to visit every ground in the league, then these are the sort of places you end up at, and as each season goes by, more and more of the clubs being promoted into Step 6 play on them. Yet another of those cages that are only accessible on three sides, but as well as covered standing there is a small seated stand behind the near goal. Unfortunately, the pitch has the multi coloured markings for smaller size matches as well.
I never made it to Holly Park, home of South Liverpool from 1935 until 1990, but did make it to The North Field, in Jericho Lane, seeing them beat Waterloo Dock 1-0 in a Liverpool County Combination League match on 2nd September 2003. They played there from 1999 up until 2018, when they moved a few hundred yards to the current ground and this season sees them begin life in the North West Counties League, having been promoted from the West Cheshire League.
Tonight’s match certainly didn’t go to form. It was 12th versus 2nd in the league table, but you would have thought the two teams were in opposite places. South Liverpool were two up after just sixteen minutes and never allowed Pilkington to get into the game. It was still 2-0 at halftime, but three goals in the first seventeen minutes of the second half saw the hosts go 5-0 up. Pilkington did get a late consolation goal to pull it back to 5-1, but a bad night was compounded for them when they had a player sent off in the last minute.
I assume that the announced crowd of 204 was for tickets sold, rather than actual spectators present, as it was thirty seven fewer than my head count.
