Oundle Town

OUNDLE TOWN 1-3 CROWLAND TOWN

Saturday 31st March 2012

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

Station Road, Oundle, PE8 4BZ

Today was a case of using up a get out of jail free card as Oundle got us (Dave and myself) out the proverbial shitter. It had been planned to watch Corby Khalsa v Welford Victoria in the Northants Combination (NC) Premier Division, which we thought was being played at Corby Rugby Club. Well following a pre-match drink in the nearby JD Weatherspoon outlet, The Samuel Lloyd we arrived at Corby Rugby Club to find no sign of Khalsa or Welford. When I enquired about this I was told that Khalsa had moved to CTC. I was given directions but with it already 2.30pm decided to check the Peterborough League website on my phone and as luck would have it Oundle were at home with a 3pm kick-off. I suppose we could have stayed where we were and watched Corby United v Ferrers FC in the NC division 4 but it did not appeal in the slightest.

Following the ten mile drive eastwards we arrived at their ground on Station Road with around ten minutes to kick-off. There is a small car park on site with additional parking on the grass behind the near goal and a social club. The pitch was railed off on three sides with brick dugouts on the right hand side. It is a pleasant setting though it would have been nice to escape the biting wind.

Oundle itself is a small town located in north-east Northamptonshire and sits on the River Nene. The population is around the 5,500 mark. When driving through the town centre it reminded me of the quaint towns you see in the Cotswolds.  

The football club were formed in 1883 and since 1910 have competed in the Peterborough & District League. Their debut season saw them finish in 4th place in divison 1. The first divisional title came in the 1954/55 season when the division 3 south was won following the runners-up position a year earlier. The PDL league title has been won just once and that came fourteen years ago in the 1997/98 season. The last five years have seen Oundle struggle and have finished in the lower half of the league table. This season at the start of play they find themselves in 11th place with 28 points from 23 league games. Opponents Crowland Town are three places and eight points worse off, but have played two games less.

The game was one in which both teams predominately cancelled each other out, certainly during the first half. The opening goal came for Crowland on 22 minutes with a volley from Simon Ingram, who turned in a cross from the right. After escaping from the wind at half time in the social club Crowland doubled their lead on 52 minutes. A through ball was slid past the oncoming keeper by Sean Treagus. Crowland took a grip of the game and it was no surprise when they got a third. It came on 69 minutes from Simon Ingram but to be honest I could not tell you anything about it as my attention was caught my a bought of handbags at the other end. Oundle then decided to get their arse in gear and show a bit of pride and deservedly got one back with fifteen minutes remaining. Darren Paling side-footed a volley home from eight yards or so out. Both teams then created a few half chances each in the final throws of the game and Crowland comfortably saw out the game.

Not the best game and not the worst either. If anyone knows where Corby Khalsa now call their home then please let me know. Also if anyone from the Northants Combination is reading this please update the details on the official website and mitoo.

Admission / programme: none

Attendance: 14 (h/c)

A slideshow of 30 photos taken can be viewed below:

Fosse City

FOSSE CITY 3-1 WEBBYS WANDERERS
Sunday 25th March 2012
Alliance Football League Division 2
Knighton Park [pitch 1], Leicester, LE18 1EF

With this being the last Sunday shift for the wife today for a while, and with Leicester, like a lot of the country bathed in glorious sunshine I decided to taken in another Sunday League game. I did have one stipulation in that it must be in or close to Wigston due to family reasons. With there not being a great deal that stood out in this part of Leicester in either the Alliance Football League or Leicester Sunday League my choice was fairly easy. The pitches on Knighton Park is as close as you get get to the city and county boundary, located just inside the City of Leicester limits. The pitches are bordered to the west by the Welford Road Recreation Ground and houses on Brighton Avenue to the south. The boundary between Knighton Park and the Welford Road pitches is not that obvious, and looking at maps is just a pathway that seperates them. 

Fosse City were formed in 2004 and have two honours to their name which both came in the 2009/10 season. They achieved the double of the division 4 title and the Stokes Cup.

This season Fosse sit in third place with five games to play, though in reality the best they can hope for is the runners-up position. Their opponents who play their games on Horsewell Lane in Wigston sit one place and three points behind Fosse but have played three games more. Below is the division 2 table at the start of play:

POS		PLYD	WON	DRW	LOST	FOR	AGA	PTS
1	Leicester Foxes Old Boys	13	12	0	1	63	23	36
2	Guthlaxton Old Boys	13	8	4	1	35	18	28
3	Fosse City	11	7	1	3	27	22	22
4	Webbys Wanderers	14	4	7	3	27	19	19
5	KS Leicester Polska	14	5	4	5	31	31	19
6	Fleckney Athletic Sunday	16	4	4	8	39	42	16
7	FC Tumar (-1)	13	3	4	6	28	40	12
8	Wigston United	15	3	3	9	23	35	12
9	Trinderbox	15	1	3	11	20	63	6

The game was due to be played on pitch 2 of the Welford Road setup but due to a double booking this game was moved to pitch 1 on Knighton Park.  

A map showing the location of the Welford Road and Knighton Park pitches, which is taken from the Leicester Sunday League website can be viewed by clicking on the link:

http://tlsfl.com/downloads/WelfordRoad.pdf

The game was fairly entertaining with both teams trying to play football. Former Oadby Town midfielder Danny Poultney is the main player for the visitors but it was the home side who had the better of things, and should have been a couple of goals up at half time. The second half was Webbys come out with an outfield substitute taking over in goal due to the recurrence of an injury to their main goalkeeper. Fosse took advantage of this and scored two goals in the space of a couple of minutes, both of which came through Nathan Williams. The first saw the keeper parry a tame shot, and following a cut back Williams slid the ball home. The second saw him hit a low shot from twenty yards that gave the Webbys keeper little chance. The two goal cushion was halved inside three minutes when Danny Hull clipped the ball over the oncoming Fosse keeper. Fosse completed the scoring towards the end of the game when their #15 rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into an empty net. This was after the Fosse keeper pulled off the save of the match when he just got a hand to a 30 yarder that was heading just inside the top left hand corner. 

Overall another enjoyable Sunday League game in perfect weather conditions. 

A slideshow of 60 photos taken at the game can be viewed below:

Oadby v Gedling MW

OADBY TOWN 1-2 GEDLING MINERS WELFARE
Saturday 24th March 2012
East Midlands Counties League
Greene King Park


No report today but photos of the game can be viewed below:

Self promoting...

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Belper United v Newark Town match in the Central Midlands League, and during the week after the game Newark's press officer and programme editor Richard Lane got in touch asking if he could use a couple of photos in a forthcoming issue of their programme. I had no problem with this and Richard kindly sent me a copy. Below is a scan of the cover and the page with the two photos used.

Ossett Town

OSSETT TOWN 0-1 WITTON ALBION

Saturday 17th March 2012

Northern Premier League Division 1 North

Ingfield, Prospect Road, WF5 9HA

Today sees a rare trip up to the Peoples Republic of Yorkshire for a visit to Ossett Town Football Club. This was not my original plan as I had penciled a game in the more local Northants Combination, but this suggestion from good friend Kevin Zupp who wanted to visit the ground before the bulldozers cometh. It was also agreed the double up with an FA Premier Academy game at Sheffield United which kicked off at 11.30am. I picked Kev up from Oadby Town FC in the morning and we set off, with the weather being drizzly and the forecast of sunshine and showers for the rest of the day. In fact the only rain we encountered was on the way home

Ossett itself is a market town in West Yorkshire and lies within the City of Wakefield Metropolitan Borough. The town is located roughly half way between Dewsbury (3 miles to the west) and Wakefield (3 1/2 miles to the east) and sits just off junction 40 of the M1 motorway. The population of the town is around 21,500.

The football club were formed  in 1936 and joined the Leeds League (later West Yorkshire League) until the outbreak of World War 2. During the war they played in the Heavy Woollen League, when after the cessation of hostilities in 1945 they became members of the Yorkshire League. Ossett remained members of the Yorkshire League until 1982 when it merged with the Midland Counties League to form the Northern Counties East League (NCEL). For the inaugural season they were placed in Division 1 North and finished in 6th place. Following league reorganisation a few years later they won the division 2 title and were promoted to division 1. A year later and Town were promoted for a second successive season after a 3rd place finish. After a number of years which can be described as consolidation in the premier division Town were promoted again in 1999 after a runners-up position secured their place in the Northern Premier League (NPL) Division 1. Just three years later and another runners-up position saw them promoted again to the premier division of the NPL. In the nine seasons spent in the premier division Ossett's highest finish came in the 2006/07 season when they ended the season in 10th place. Following relegation in the summer to division 1 north they currently sit in 16th place recording nine wins in their thirty two league games played. Current form though is very poor as there has been only one victory in the last ten games. This came on the 18th February when Clitheroe were dispatched 2-0. Last time out Salford City came away from Ossett with a 2-0 victory on Tuesday night.

Their opponents today have made the trek across from Northwich and sit in 3rd place in the league table, finding themselves eight points behind leaders Curzon Ashton. Their form since the turn of the year has been mixed but have won their last two league matches - 6-0 @ Bamber Bridge and 1-0 @ Clitheroe respectively.

The ground is easy to find being just five minutes from junction 40 of the M1 motorway. There is no parking for spectators at the ground but there is a (very) cheap public car park opposite which cost us 80p for four hours. The turnstile entrance is on Prospect Road itself and we were charged £7 for admission and a further £2 for a 32 page programme. The admission charge is what I was expecting but the programme was certainly not worth the money. On entering the ground the social club is front of you to the right with the pitch to the left. There is three sets of cover - 1) a large seated stand on the Prospect Road side of the the ground; 2) a section of covered standing on the far side next to the dugouts and 3) a small section of cover on the near side in front of the changing rooms. It is easy to understand why the land is earmarked for retail development with it being in a prime location in the town. When the club will move though is another matter as they will only relocate when the offer is right for the club, not the developer.

The game was one to forget with it being one of the worst I have seen at any level all season. Very few chances were created and very little football played. The only goal of the game came around the twenty minute mark. Ossett keeper Ashley Connor took a goal kick which was intended for Mark Ryan, though Ryan had decided to run upfield at the precise moment the kick was taken. Albion's Ashley Stott was the first to react and he calmly placed the ball past Connor. Cue chants of dodgy keeper from the visiting supporters behind the goal. In the second half, which was worse than the first Ossett resorted to hitting hopeful balls with the visitors easily containing their efforts. I was bored watching this long before the final whistle ended the afternoons proceedings, and was glad to get back in the car to make the ninety mile drive home.

  

Admission: £7

Programme: £2

Team sheet: free

Badge: £3 - on order

Attendance: 113

websites / sources:

Evo-Stik Northern Premier League - official

Ossett Town FC - official

A final note should be that of our first game of the day at the Sheffield United Academy. United welcome spectators to attend their academy games and there were around 65 people watching the under-18 game. Both games were on adjacent pitches and there is a "snack shack" serving drinks and hot food. There was no admission charge or programme / team sheet issued.

A slideshow of photos taken of the ground and game can be viewed below:

IQRA

I.Q.R.A. 1-5 Syston Midland Railway

Sunday 11th March 2012

Leicester Sunday League Premier Cup Group C

Evington Park [pitch 1], Leicester, LE5 6DE

With the wife being given another Sunday shift at her work and also with the weather being favourable unlike last Sunday, I decided to take in another Leicester Sunday League game for the second time in three weeks, which like the previous one is at a venue that is not used by a Saturday side.

This fixture pits Division 1 side IQRA against Premier Division Syston Midland Railway, whom happened to be the visiting team at Goscote Spartans two weeks ago. The Premier Cup is one of five cup competitions that the Leicester Sunday League organise. The others are the League Cup, Presidents Cup, Chairman's Cup and Senior Cup. The Premier Cup is organised on a round robin group basis with four groups of four. The other teams in Group C are FC Shoemakers 09 and Fairfield United. There have been three matches played so far in this group:

19/02: Syston Midland Railway 4-3 IQRA

19/02: FC Shoemakers 09 6-1 Fairfield United

04/03: Fairfield United 2-4 IQRA

Evington Park like the name suggests is a public park and is located in the eastern suburbs of Leicester. It is home to two football pitches, cricket, 2 bowling greens and 6 tennis courts. A location of the park can be found here: map link

The game was played in glorious sunshine and was one that kicked off twenty minutes late due to the arrival time of Syston. They also only turned up with ten players. The hosts made the perfect start when they took the lead on four minutes with a superb lob over the visiting keeper. Parity should have been restored shortly afterwards but a Syston goal was wrongly ruled out for offside. There were two Syston players in the box when the ball was played across - one was offside, one not and it was the player who was not that finished the move off. The home side then nearly made it 2-0 but a sweetly struck volley hit one of the uprights. With around fifteen minutes played Syston did get a deserved equaliser when the ball was lobbed over the hesitant IQRA keeper. Two goals in the space of three minutes for the visitors put them in control of proceedings. Firstly on thirty five minutes, following a couple of powerful shots that were saved by the keeper the ball rebounded to their #9 and he finished from a couple of yards out. Then just three minutes later and a through ball was finished coolly past the keeper. Right on the stroke of half time and the visitors had their fourth of the morning and this came from an own goal as a defender turned in a cross at the near post. 


The second half saw only one further goal and this came on the hour mark when Jamie Wood found himself one on one with the IQRA keeper and finished with ease. This is not to say the half was without any incident as the home keeper produced a few superb saves to keep the score down. A flashpoint did occur when an IQRA completely lost the plot. There was a foul in the middle of the mark and the referee blew for a free kick to the home side. A player who was nowhere near the incident started giving the referee a lot of verbals which was completely unjust. When he was calmed down the referee booked him on the condition that he was substituted immediately. A sensible decision in my book. The player then gave his manager a mouthful as well which was undeserved.

websites / sources:

IQRA page (Leicester Sunday League website)

Syston Midland Railway page (Leicester Sunday League website)

A slideshow of photos taken during the game can be viewed below:

Belper United

BELPER UNITED 3-1 NEWARK TOWN

Saturday 10th March 2012

Central Midlands League Division - South

Alton Manor, Nailers Way, DE56 0UT

To be honest I had no plans to anywhere this today but by midweek I was trawling through the fixtures of league websites that cover the East Midlands. When I came across this one it became plan A. There are two reasons for this - 1) It will mean that I have seen a game of football at all the grounds currently used in this division, and 2) There are reports that United's ground will be covered by the ever expanding housing estate in the not to distant future.

United's ground from my home is around forty miles away and took around an hour to make the journey. It is located on the north-eastern edge of the town and is a basic affair. There is a small car park and octagonal changing room block, while the pitch is fully railed and has dugouts on the right hand side. Finally there is a small structure on the far side which would at a guess keep no more than ten people sheltered from the elements. Catering at present is in the form of a mobile van which was selling the usual stuff - burgers, hot dogs, tea, coffee etc etc. The reports regarding United's ground are a case of yes and no. Yes - the ground will be covered by the adjacent housing estate, and no - it will not be anytime soon, as according to a club official it will more a good four to five years away from happening. 

This is Belpers' first season in the CML having transferred from the Midlands Regional Alliance in the summer. There was a divided opinion whether the move had been a good one. They currently sit in mid table with thirty five points from their twenty four games played. Last time out a week ago they record a 4-1 victory @ Nottingham United. Opponents Newark Town have been members of the CML since 2004 when they transferred from the now defunct Notts Alliance.  They find themselves five points and three places better off than Belper at the start of play. The two teams met back in October when United recorded a 2-1 victory at Towns' Station Road ground in Collingham.

The first half was to put it bluntly as dull as the grey clouds in the sky. I can only recall both keepers making one save between them and that was when the Newark keeper turned a goal bound effort round the post. With around five minutes remaining of the first period Kyle Wadsworth found himself alone on the edge of the penalty area and hit a speculative shot across Garry Attwood that found its way into the bottom corner. A couple of minutes later and the hosts were down to ten men when Eddie Bridges was sent off for kicking out at Ian Hillier in front of the referee. At the start of the second half Newark were caught napping by Belper, as the hosts doubled their lead within three minutes of the restart. The ball was played down the inside left channel and Jordan McRobie hit a superb volley that flew past Attwood. Despite being a man down Belper comfortably dealt with the Newark attack with Adam Jablonski in the home goal being rarely troubled. On the hour mark and it was pretty much game over as Belper got their third goal of the afternoon. Tony Hemmings flicked the ball onto McRobie and he hit another volley past Attwood. With ten minutes remaining Newark got a consolation goal as Ginelly headed in a Mark Ellison cross at the far post from a tight angle. In truth I believe it was Newark's only effort that was on target during the whole of the second half. Then again they had very few that were off target as well and Belper ran out deserved winners in this mid table battle.

Admission: none
Programme: £1
Attendance: around 40
Badge: £3



Websites / sources:


Belper United (official)  


A slideshow of photos taken of the ground and game can be viewed below:

Saints v Swifts

SILEBY SAINTS 3-0 LUTTERWORTH TOWN

Saturday 3rd March 2012

Leicestershire Senior League Division 1

Platts Lane Sports Ground, Cossington

The choice of game for the Rambler today is a local one and more specifically a visit to one of the three remaining grounds left to re-complete the Leicestershire Senior League. The other two (Linwood Playing Fields and Coventry Road Recreation Ground) are new venues of Aylestone Park and Lutterworth Town respectively. 

It had been arranged to meet up with my Dad for this game - with this being the first time since January 14th. As we both live in different parts of Leicester it was agreed to meet up at the Gate Hangs Well pub on the north side of Syston - a mere five minute drive to the nearby village of Cossington. We arrived at the sports ground with around ten minutes to the kick off and it is a tidy affair. It is home not only to football but rugby and cricket as well. The football pitch is on the left hand side and it has wooden fencing around three sides of the pitch, with the other being roped off. Along the near side are some permanent dugouts and finally there is a modern looking changing room block in the left hand corner of the ground which served hot and cold drinks, filled soft cobs and snacks.

I don't know when Sileby were formed but were competing in division one of the North Leicestershire League (NLL) in 1997. The next four seasons were spent in division 1 before the Saints suffered relegation to division 2. Promotion back to division 1 came in the 2003/04 season when they were crowned division 2 champions, recording forty eight points from their twenty league games. The following season they achieved back-to-back promotions as they won the division 1 title, losing only one league game in the process. Their first season in the premier division saw them finish in the runners-up position, and just one year laters were crowned NLL champions. Last season they won the NLL again and with it achieved promotion to the Leicestershire Senior League (LSL). The LSL has been to their liking as they are on course for another promotion, with them sitting in second place behind Caterpillar (who have a 100% record) and ten points ahead of third placed Melton Mowbray. Opponents Lutterworth Town meanwhile sit at the wrong end of the table with only Asfordby Amateurs below them.

The game, especially during the first half did not go according to the script for the home side as the visitors belied their lowly position and made a game of it. In fact it was hard to tell which side was which on the basis of play and the first half ended goalless. The second half saw Sileby run out comfortable winners, helped by two goal keeping errors. The first came a minute into the second half when a free kick from Jake Rimington should have been saved easily but found its way into the net. The second goal of the afternoon came a few minutes after the hour mark when a good cross from the right was turned in at the far post by Lee Dawson. The Lutterworth team did not let their heads drop but their play in the final third of the pitch let them down all to often. The killer third goal for the Saints came with eight minutes remaining when a tame cross from the right was missed by the keeper and the clearance by a defender struck Dawson in the midriff. This resulted in the ball ending the back of the net for a somewhat comical goal. Lutterworth's best two chances came in the final five minutes - the first was a well struck shot that clattered the woodwork and the second was a tame effort in which the home keeper saved.

Admission / programme: none

Attendance: 10

A slideshow of photos taken during the game can be viewed below: