A season review (The Last Ever Post)

As I have done ever since I started All Roads Lead Somewhere a brief review of my football watching season will end the proceedings, though this time it will not be a case of "back in July" but thank you and goodnight.


Number of games seen: 59
Number of goals seen: 234
Average number of goals per game: 3.97
Highest number of goals in a game: 11 (Gretton v Welford Victoria)
Number of new venues visited: 39


New teams this season (in league order):


Alliance Football League (Sun): Advance Couriers, Fosse City, Sparta Moshdock
Central Midlands League: Belper United, Clifton, Pinxton
Football / Premier League: Arsenal, Dagenham & Redbridge, Tottenham Hotspur
Grantham & District League: Buckminster United
Hellenic League: Brimscombe & Thrupp
Leicester Sunday League: A.F.C. Sporting Charnwood*, Goscote Spartans, I.Q.R.A.
Leicestershire Senior League: Sileby Saints
Midlands Regional Alliance: Derby Rolls Royce Leisure, Willington
North Leicestershire League: Asfordby Village, Belton Villa, Ferrari, Genesis, Greenhill Y.C.
Northants Combination: Gretton, Roade, Spratton
Northern Premier League: Ossett Town
Peterborough & District League: Castor & Ailsworth, Eye Sports, Ketton, Kings Cliffe United, Netherton United, Oundle Town, Pinchbeck United


* - summer competition. Normally play in the Charnwood Sunday League

Best Game: Sparta Moshdock v Premier Sports Travel (Alliance Football League). A superb advert for Sunday football with Sparta racing into a two goal lead inside ten minutes, only for Premier to peg them back and win it 3-2. 


Worst Game: New York Red Bulls v Paris St. Germain (Emirates Cup) - simply boring.


Best team in relation to level: A tough one as I was especially impressed by three teams I saw this season, but in the end went for Loughborough Students Under-21's  Saw them twice during the season and would happily watch them every week. The way they play the game and their attitude was first class. The other two teams in contention were Allenton United and Greenhill YC.


Worst team in relation to level: Alconbury. Totally outclassed at Pinchbeck United and could have easily conceded more than ten goals.


Favourite ground (professional): Emirates Stadium. Only a choice of three but easily the best stadium I have ever visited. Period.


Favourite ground (non-league): withheld. Most of my new venues have been very basic that have had little or no facilities.


Most picturesque setting: The Meadow (Brimscombe & Thrupp). Views of the southern Cotswolds either side of the ground make this ground a very pleasant place to watch football, especially on a nice sunny day.


Most friendliest club: Spratton (Northants Combination)


Best pitch (non-league): Woodlands Sports & Conference Centre (Castor & Ailsworth FC).


Best programme: Emirates Cup. Did not get many programmes apart from Oadby Town ones, but the one for the Emirates Cup was top quality even though it did cost £5.


Worst programme: Toss up between Blaby & Whetstone Athletic and Ossett Town. Two poor efforts that were not worth their selling price of £1 and £2 respectively.


Best goal: Michael Clarke (Warboys Town @ Ketton). A superb forty yard half volley that sailed over the Ketton goal keeper.


This season has also seen some photos of mine published in a few local newspapers and a monthly publication:


Syston Town News 
October 2011 - photo and report (Greenhill v Victoria) on page 27
May 2012 - photo (Syston Midland Railway) on page 24


Rugby Advertiser
15th December 2011 - two photos (Rugby Town Juniors U-21's) on page 82


Rutland Mercury
20th January 2012 - photo (Eye Sports v Oakham United) on page 117


Rutland Times
19th January 2012 - photo (Eye Sports v Oakham United) on page 34


At the time of writing further photos have been sent to both the Syston Town News and Rutland Mercury. 


And that is it. A final thank you to all the readers, whether regular or one time only over the last five years. I will be back watching football in July taking my camera with me to as many games as possible - details will be on my twitter feed @allroads1

The last games

With the season coming to end yesterday (May 19th) below are photo slideshows of the final four games of the season:


1) Saturday 12th May 2012
Ketton 6-1 Warboys Town
(Peterborough & District League Division 1)


2) Sunday 13th May 2012
AFC Sporting Charnwood 3-1 E.M.R.
(Leicester Sunday League Summer Competition)


3) Tuesday 15th May 2012
Kings Cliffe United 2-1 Moulton Harrox
(Peterborough & District League Premier Division)


4) Saturday 19th May 2012
Netherton United 4-1 Uppingham Town
(Peterborough & District League Premier Division)

Bank holiday weekend games...

Two games over the weekend. Ground and match photos below from:


1) Pinchbeck United 10-0 Alconbury
Peterborough & District League Premier Division


2) Wigston Car Breakers 0-2 Syston Midland Railway
Leicester Sunday League Premier Cup Final 
(@ Hinckley United FC)

Recent games...

With no reports from the three games since my decision to call All Roads Lead Somewhere a day at the end of the season, below are slideshows of the photos I took at them:

1) Saturday 14th April 2012
Castor & Ailsworth 3-2 Sutton Bridge United
Peterborough & District League Division 2



2) Sunday 15th April 2012
Syston Midland Railway 4-0 Groby Memorial
Leicester Sunday League Premier Cup Semi-Final (@ Ratby Sports FC)




3) Saturday 21st April 2012
Buckminster United 1-0 Greyhounders
Grantham & District League Senior Cup Semi-Final

...and finally

A difficult decision has been made that come then end of this season when All Roads Lead Somewhere will reach its 5th birthday, there will be no more posts.  Everything has its life cycle and I feel that the time is right for this blog to end. 


I would like to thank all the people that have visited the site, whether it be just the once or regularly over the past five years. I do know the names of some of the readers (past and present), and have also had the pleasure of meeting some of them, but out of respect will not name names. I also never envisaged that this site would have had as many visitors from as many different counties as it has. It completely took me by surprise and to be honest  when I first set up a visitor log found it a bit overwhelming.


I will continue to watch football, take my camera with me, and continue to update the @allroads1 twitter feed with links to the flickr album.


Thanks again


Rob Campion
aka The Rambler.
allroadsleadsomewhere@googlemail.com

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:

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: