Game 525

Staveley Miners Welfare 1-0 Tadcaster Albion

Northern Counties East League Division 1

Saturday 26th January 2008

Inkersall Road

Nearly a week after the game I finally I have time to put some words onto the screen and also I received some photos of the game and ground from my dad.

The original plan was to visit Olney Town with my dad but his partner decided she wanted to come out for the day, which we duly did along with my wife. Neither of the women likes football by the way! Due to this change I decided to look for another fixture with a reasonable sized town not visited before nearby. Staveley fitted the bill perfectly being only a few miles from Chesterfield. The trip up the M1 to north Derbyshire was an easy journey took about an hour and a quarter.
Chesterfield is a pleasant town with some nice buildings though the one that stands out is the church (the name of which eludes me) with the crooked spire. Lunch was had in one of the well known pub chains that you see in a lot of town centres across the country and the food and beer was as you would expect. I am one of these people that likes to try different lagers, pils and pale ales - and surprisingly did not have anything different for sale.

Staveley Miners Welfare play on Inkersall Road - I can't tell you anything about the place as we followed the directions of the sat nav. Admission was £3 and a further £1 for a programme - no arugments for those prices and I counted around 50 people in attendance. There is a stand on the right hand side of the ground which I would guess seats 200 and a covered terrace stand behind the far goal. Hot food and drink are available in one of the portakabins which has about 6 tables in. Merchandise was also available - hats, scarves, shirts and jackets. No badges for sales as yet - it is something that they are looking into.




The first half was pretty even in terms of possession though the home side created the better chances and took the lead on 15 minutes. Staveley also had a shot cleared off the line when one of their players rounded the visiting keeper and looked destined to score. From the resulting corner the woodwork was struck.

The second half saw the home side dominate and created numerous chances but through good goalkeeping and poor finishing, failed to take any of them and add to the score.

Overall a nice friendly club and well worth a visit.

Game 524

Newark Flowserve 2-0 Harworth Colliery Institute

Lowfields Works

Central Midlands League Premier Division

Saturday 12th January 2008

My first game in three weeks since I saw Brereton Social on the Saturday before Christmas saw me make the relatively short trip up the A46 to the New Balderton area of Newark to see Newark Flowserve take on Harworth Colliery Institute. The ground is on the site of Lowfields Works which is on Hawton Lane and took me around 1 hour to get to from my home in the Braunstone area of Leicester. I was not charged an admission and programmes were on sale for £1. I did a head count during the second half and there was around 35 people in attendance.

I met "Mr Central Midlands League" Rob Hornby at the game and spent the whole time talking non-league football, whether it be our "travellers tales" or issues within the game itself. It was nice to meet up with Rob again and look forward to seeing him and fellow groundhoppers at the Nettleham game on the Easter Weekend hop - it will be the only game of the eight that I will be attending.
The game itself saw a fairly even first half with the home side shading it that saw a few chances in a competitve but free flowing half. I can only recall about two or three fouls during the whole of the half. The half ended goalless.
The second was better in terms of entertainment and chances created with Harworth having more of the posession and creating the better chances. The home keeper was forced into action on more than one occasion and kept Flowserve in the game. As often is the case the sucker punch happend as the home side scored with a few minutes to go through their number 9 who rounded the visiting keeper to score. There was still time for a second from the home side with a tap in on the goal line from with the last kick of the game.