Treble Paston

LUTTERWORTH TOWN 4-0 SHEPSHED DYNAMO RESERVES
Saturday 7th April 2012
Leicestershire Senior League Division 1
Coventry Road Recreation Ground

With the season coming to a close, and despite Oadby Town having a top of the table clash with Borrowash Victoria I thought it bout time I paid a visit to Lutterworth Towns' home for this season, the Coventry Road Recreation Ground. You might be wondering why I am in a rush to visit what in effect is a public park? Well Town were only going to play at this venue this season, and from what I have been told will be returning to their original home on Dunley Way next season. This also following a recent visit to Sileby Saints means I will have seen football at all the venues in the lower division of the Leicestershire Senior League. That means that come next season I will still have at least one venue to pay a visit to. The only definite is Aylestone Park FC's Linwood Playing Fields ground on Saffron Lane in Leicester. I have heard that Ashby Ivanhoe are moving to a new ground ready for the start of next season, and then it is a case of waiting to see who gets promoted from the two feeder leagues: the North Leicestershire League and the Leicester & District League.

Market Street

Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish within the Harborough District of Leicestershire. It has a population around the 8,500 mark. It lies some 15 miles south of Leicester, 7 miles north of Rugby and 13 miles west of Market Harborough. The town does have excellent access to the road network with it being adjacent to junction 20 of the M1. The A5, M6 and A14 are also only a few miles away as well. The nearest railway station to Lutterworth is Rugby. 

The name Lutterworth possibly comes from the Old Norse  "Lutter's Vordig", meaning Luthers Farm. The town is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In 1214 the town was granted its Market Charter by King John, and it still holds a market today.

The town is also associated with Frank Whittle who invented the jet engine. He developed some of the worlds first jet engines at the British Thomson-Houston works in Lutterworth and Rugby during the late 1930's and 1940's. The engine for the UK's first jet aeroplane, the Gloster E.28/39 was produced in Lutterworth. A statue of the plane stands in the middle of a roundabout just south of the town centre as a memorial.

Sir Frank Whittle

The Whittle Memorial, Lutterworth

The football club have been in existence for over 100 years and have been members of the Leicestershire Senior League since 1955. Only two clubs, Sileby Town and Earl Shilton Albion have members for longer and they both joined the LSL in 1953. Town have had very few honours in the LSL having won the division 2 title once in 1981 and ten years later became league champions for the one and only time. Last season they finished bottom of the division one table. This season they have again struggled, and at the time of writing with three games remaining sit in 14th place in the league table. Only Asfordby Amateurs are below them. Town's last game was two weeks ago when they recorded a 2-1 home victory against the afore mentioned Amateurs. Opponents Shepshed Dynamo Reserves also find themselves at the wrong end of the table and are currently just one point and one place above their hosts this afternoon, though they have played two games less.

Martin Paston scoring the opening goal

The Coventry Road Recreation Ground is a basic affair as Town rope off the pitch and set up portable dugouts. After today's game they have two home games left before their affore mentioned apparent move back to Dunley Way.

To be fair to both teams my expectations for this game were low, but in the end it was an enjoyable game of football that I witnessed. Two goals in each half gave the hosts a comfortable victory, but despite having no substitutes Shepshed made a game of it, especially in the second half. 

The game was only six minutes old when following a mistake from the visiting keeper Martin Paston slid the ball home for opening goal. Twenty minutes later and it became 2-0. A mistake in the Shepshed defence saw Paston unmarked some twenty yards out from goal and he chipped the ball over the keeper. With no further goals the half ended 2-0. Following the restart Shepshed took the game to Lutterworth and had the majority of the possession and territory. With around 3/4 of the game gone and Town had a three goal cushion. Danny Toone took advantage of a weak punch from the keeper and his shot on the turn found the far corner of the goal. The fourth and final goal of the afternoon came with around fifteen minutes remaining and was a well worked effort. Town hit Shepshed on the counter attack, and after a superb cross field diagonal ball, Paston was found unmarked in the penalty area and finished with a first time effort to complete his hat-trick.

Admission: none

Programme: none 

Attendance: 10

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