CAMPION 3-1 GOLCAR UNITED
Manningham Mills Sports Ground, Bradford
Saturday 22nd September 2007
West Riding County Amateur League Premier Division
The primary reason for travelling up to Bradford for a West Riding League match, and this one in particular is that Campion is my surname and was curious about the club – the name itself is not that common and a football club named after one made the curiosity grow especially as I have recently being looking at my family tree. The Campion line that have researched back to the 18th century originate from Rushden in Northamptonshire. I had also managed to get my dad to come along for the jaunt up the M1. The second and final reason is that I studied in Bradford between 1995 and 1997 and I have not been up there for seven or eight years or so and I wanted to have a look at the college and area that I lived. It not surprisingly brought back memories for me and to see the college halls of residence as a building site was not what I expected. While driving around I will admit that I did feel a touch of emotion.
As we had time on our side before the 2:30 kick-off we went to Saltaire to have some lunch and a beer and found a pub on the banks of the River Aire. Saltaire is a village which was purpose built by Victorian Sir Titus Salt for workers at his woollen mills.
We found the Manningham Mills Sports Ground fairly easily with the aid of a sat nav and arrived at around 2:15. Campion share the ground with Manningham Mills Cricket Club though the two pitches do not overlap and the football pitch is railed off all the way round with a small stand running approximately half way along the far side. The ground does boast a new building that backs onto Scotchman Road which houses changing rooms and bar. The club do not take a gate or issue a programme which was not unexpected and around 30 people were in attendance for the game.
The first half was, I thought very entertaining with good football being played by both teams which would grace a higher level. Campion nearly got off to the perfect start when the visiting keeper pulled off a superb save after only two minutes. It took the home side 25 minutes to score and well worth the wait it was as Durkin finished off a fine move with a low shot into the bottom corner from the left hand side of the penalty area. Both sides created chances and tried to play football instead of the route one option and Golcar were level before the half ended when their number six scored with an angled drive.
The second half started with the visitors having the majority of possession and creating the better chances, but were hit with a sucker punch on the hour mark when Chimba Manondo created space for himself to score from about 12 yards giving the keeper no chance. This seemed to knock the stuffing out of Golcar and gave Campion a second wind, with which they duly took advantage of but scoring a third with twenty minutes left through Noble. No further scoring ensued but both teams never stopped trying to score in what was an open game from start to finish.
Credit to both teams.
Final Score: 3-1
As we had time on our side before the 2:30 kick-off we went to Saltaire to have some lunch and a beer and found a pub on the banks of the River Aire. Saltaire is a village which was purpose built by Victorian Sir Titus Salt for workers at his woollen mills.
We found the Manningham Mills Sports Ground fairly easily with the aid of a sat nav and arrived at around 2:15. Campion share the ground with Manningham Mills Cricket Club though the two pitches do not overlap and the football pitch is railed off all the way round with a small stand running approximately half way along the far side. The ground does boast a new building that backs onto Scotchman Road which houses changing rooms and bar. The club do not take a gate or issue a programme which was not unexpected and around 30 people were in attendance for the game.
The first half was, I thought very entertaining with good football being played by both teams which would grace a higher level. Campion nearly got off to the perfect start when the visiting keeper pulled off a superb save after only two minutes. It took the home side 25 minutes to score and well worth the wait it was as Durkin finished off a fine move with a low shot into the bottom corner from the left hand side of the penalty area. Both sides created chances and tried to play football instead of the route one option and Golcar were level before the half ended when their number six scored with an angled drive.
The second half started with the visitors having the majority of possession and creating the better chances, but were hit with a sucker punch on the hour mark when Chimba Manondo created space for himself to score from about 12 yards giving the keeper no chance. This seemed to knock the stuffing out of Golcar and gave Campion a second wind, with which they duly took advantage of but scoring a third with twenty minutes left through Noble. No further scoring ensued but both teams never stopped trying to score in what was an open game from start to finish.
Credit to both teams.
Final Score: 3-1
