Heed Hopper: ✔Eskdale School

The two Whitby based clubs in the North Riding Football League, both use facilities within Eskdale School. The school was awarded a grant from the Premier League, The FA and Government's Football Foundation, to install a new floodlit 3G pitch, which officially opened in May 2021. The ground is a typical 3G cage with spectators standing on one side.

Whitby Fishermen’s Society uses the Eskdale Community 3G Pitch, while Fishburn Park plays on the grass pitch at the top end of the school known as Broomfield Park. The ground is fully railed off with dugouts on one side and from one side you can see the 3G pitch at the bottom of the bank.

I travelled down to Whitby with Katie and her mam Pauline on Saturday morning. After a few hours in Whitby town centre we arrived at the ground at 1.45pm.

I chose to watch the pre-season fixture between Fishburn Park and Redcar Town, while the Wallace’s took in the Whitby Fishermens v Sunderland RCA Reserves game, as Katie has already seen a match at Broomfield Park.

The club celebrate their 75th anniversary this season and began their campaign against Northern League opposition with a goal right at the start. Their first attack on goal was finished off with a clever overhead kick from Adam Warrilow. Redcar quickly responded, equalising with a penalty from Sam Webber and took a half time lead through Connor Smith. Ardalan Ameen grabbed another goal for Fishburn in the second half but a Jack Cairns strike proved to be the winner for Town.

Meanwhile on the 3G surface Whitby Fishermans scored two goals in each half. They twice got on the scoresheet late in the first half and were four goals to the good by the 70th minute, with a brace from man of the match Sam Russell and goals from Jordan Purvis and Jack Cairns. The visitors pulled two goals back through substitute Tom Bell to make it 4-2.