Revisit - Kingston Park

The FA have confirmed that Newcastle Blue Star will reclaim their place in the Arngrove Northern League Division One next season, after giving notice of voluntary relegation earlier in the month.
The news sent shockwaves throughout the non-league football scene in the North-East, Northern League clubs have been accused of lacking ambition, happy in the comfort zone of playing local football instead of stepping up to a national level. Blue Star took the step into the newly constructed Unibond Division One North, but have decided it’s not for them, based purely on geographical reasons, this was highlighted in yesterdays match programme, which featured a mileage chart highlighting their plight, the closest club is Harrogate RA (83 miles) and the furthest is Skelmersdale (164 miles) so the fact that the players might not be home in time for Ant and Dec’s Saturday Takeaway is a decisive factor.
But seriously I wish the club would stay put and hope the experience won’t put off other Northern League clubs making the step up, if more clubs were to progress giving the North-East a bigger percentage of clubs in the Unibond then that would solve some of the travel problems and reduce costs.
Blue Star have heavily invested in a good squad of players, I attended the game against Mossley and saw an entertaining 5-1 win, it’s a shame that a sparse crowd of only 73 were in attendance, there was more in The Hiding Place Sports & Lounge Bar which is situated in the main stand, than outside watching the main action, maybe the comfy surroundings and live Premier League football on half a dozen screens, was a far more attractive alternative to 22 players running around chasing a ball in the pouring rain.
Kingston Park is probably now one of the best grounds in Non-League football, I don’t know what the future hold ground wise for the club, but the point of this post and my revisit is I wanted to see Blue Star play in the Unibond and take some better photographs of Kingston Park to share on the website.
So here they are;
Kingston Park Matchday Web album

My original visit to Kingston Park – Ground no.126 can be found
here.
My visit to the Wheatshief Ground, which includes a brief history of Blue Star, can be found here.
My match report for Non-League Blog (to follow)

Update April 22nd ‘08
Newcastle Blue Star made a u-turn on their decision to return to the ANL, a meeting of the UBL Management Committee on April 21st confirmed the club had been readmitted.
Why the sudden change of heart? The problems the club highlights haven’t gone away, whatever their reasons for staying (maybe it’s because they read this post) its good news for NE Non-League football.
The team has been on a great run and has climbed the table under the guidance of new boss Paul Baker, they’ll be hoping the make further progression next season.

My Matchday - 164 Ingfield

Ossett Town 0v3 Gateshead
Unibond Premier League
24th March 2008
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Ossett is an old industrial town in West Yorkshire, sandwiched in between Dewsbury and Wakefield, despite being a small town it has two football clubs, Ossett Albion and my latest destination Ingfield, the home of Ossett Town.
The club were formed in 1936, the brainchild of Mr. John Carter and a group of local sports fans, originally playing in the Leeds League, before joining the Yorkshire League after the war. Town’s original ground was at Fern House, but in 1957 moved to the current site, all thanks to Blackburn(no not Rovers) Derek Blackburn was sold to Swansea Town and with the £1350 transfer fee they were able to purchase Ingfield. They played within the three divisions of the Yorkshire League and regularly hit four figure attendances during this era, but without much success on the field.
The club became founder members of the North Counties East League and won back to back promotions between 1988 and 1990, their highest finish in the NCEL Premier Division came in 1998/99, finishing runner-up to neighbours Ossett Albion, but Albion were denied promotion due to ground grading regulations, so Town took their place(I bet they loved that!) in the Unibond Division One.
After finishing runners-up in 2001/02 they were harshly denied promotion to the Unibond Premier as the club missed the deadline on ground improvements, but they did make it the following season due to the formation of the Conference North.
Ingfield has a capacity of 4,000 with a record crowd of 2,600 in a pre-season friendly against Man Yoo in 1988, it’s been upgraded during the last year, amenities like new toilets, changing rooms and a club shop, these as well as other facilities, like the clubhouse are found on your immediate entry into the ground.
There is one main stand ’The Prospect Road Stand’ situated behind the goal, it has 360 red flip seats which were transferred from Doncaster’s Belle Vue before the ground was demolished, they still have the ‘reserved’ stickers on the back, evidence that in their previous life, the seats belonged to the backsides of Rovers season-ticket holders. There’s a disabled viewing area next to the stand and to the other side there’s a terrace with some very wonky looking crash barriers. Both sides of the ground have partial cover, running roughly parallel with one half of the pitch, the shelter on the nearside incorporates the changing rooms, I noticed that the front panel of the roof was covered with dints off the ball getting blasted off it and the two portkabins stacked up behind used as hospitality, had one cabin precariously balancing on top of the other. Behind the far goal there’s a hard standing area and there’s plenty of floodlight pylons, seven all together which were installed in the late 1980’s.
Town must have fancied there chances of getting at least a point after a recent mini run of good results, even against a Gateshead side with only three away defeats over the last calendar year, but hopes of an upset became more unlikely after a dream start for the Tynesiders with a goal after only 12 seconds(thanks to timekeeper Alan Price for the accuracy) a great through ball from Brayson found Wayne Phillips who timed his run to perfection, leaving himself with the simple task of knocking the ball past the keeper. Several chances later it was 0-2, right back Baxter played a good one-two with Gate before rifling his shot into the top corner of the net, Ossett came more into the game as the half progressed, but overall the Heed defence had a comfortable afternoon, limiting the home attack to long range efforts, which were closer to the neighbouring buildings than the Gateshead goal. A good afternoon’s work was completed on 51 minutes, good work from Bowey allowed Phillips the simple task to grab his second, Paul Brayson later had chances to add to the three goal tally, but overall a convincing performance and well earned three points.
It promises to be an exciting end to season, as Gateshead are expected to retain there stranglehold on a place-off berth and hopefully hold on the 3rd position, meaning home field advantage for the play-off semi final, yesterday’s battle of the top 2 saw leaders Witton crash 3-0 at home to Fleetwood, so it’s left to those two clubs to battle out for the title and runners-up spot.
As for Ossett Town, they’ve improved again this season and will be looking towards a another top 10 finish and the possibility of their highest ever finish within the non-league pyramid, which for a town with two clubs and a small but loyal fan base, is quite an achievement.

Thanks to Captain Carter for the lift to Ossett, much appreciated and another enjoyable day for the Heed Army, the support was top class considering no bus was available, but our convoy of cars who made to journey to Yorkshire swelled the attendance and gave the team great backing. Heed Army! Howay the Lads!

Ground no.164 Ingfield - Matchday Web album(14 pictures)

Gettin!! The Return of the Football Bog Blog!!

After an unwanted break, I’m thrilled to announce the return of ‘The Football Bog Blog’ unfortunately while on my travels I haven’t come across any toilets worthy of joining the rest of the netty elite, but just like the preverbal 56 bus, none for ages then two arrive together.
So the series continues and don’t forget anyone is free to contribute, if you see a football bog that you think is good enough to enter the toilet walls of fame, then email me your picture along with a few details to this address.

The Football Bog Blog

Great stadia toilets No.10 in a series of....who knows?
The ones at Skemmy that aren't smeggy!
If you looked at this picture and didn’t already know what it was, you could easily have mistaking it for the players tunnel, it’s designed in a similar way with ladies facilities to the left (away team) and the gents on the right (home team) with a disabled toilet at the back (officials) They are very clean, well maintained and pleasing on the eye, painted in the club colours of blue and white and to set it off; the Unibond League flag perched proudly on top.

The Football Bog Blog

Great stadia toilets, no.11 in a series of...whatever!
The ones at Brandon, the small concrete cube behind the goal
This little concrete cube can be found behind the far goal at Brandon United, I only discovered this bog when leaving the ground near the end of the game, maybe the reason it didn’t come to my attention was because no one used it; and who would? I certainly wouldn’t want to unzip and do my business against this wall, as Brandon can get a bit chilly and is fully exposed to high winds. It’ll take a brave man to use this bog in the winter and like I’ve said; I didn’t witness anyone courageous enough to try it.

Football Fanzine Awards

The 100 Football Grounds Club is now short listed in the New Football Polls Fanzine Awards - Blog Category.
Many Thanks to everyone who showed their support by voting, this means it’s now down to the final 9, I’ve had to send three pieces of work to showcase the blog and then it’s up to the judges to decide on the winner, here is the list of the final nominations;

http://www.footballfanzineawards.com/nominations-blog.php

Again, huge thanks for all your support, especially the person who nominated the blog in the first place and brought it to the attention of the Football Fans Census (whoever you are let me know, I owe you a pie and a pint)

New Non-League Blog

THE NON-LEAGUE
FOOTBALL BLOG

The Non-League Football Blog was set up by South Shields supporter Phil Thornton and contains features and match reports from the Non-League scene; where I’ve been added to their illustrious team of bloggers. I’ve contributed to the website already and hoping to send more match reports whenever I can, this will include non-league games which may not have been featured on the 100FGC site.
The site is still under construction, but already there’s been plenty of material added to the blog, the address is;

http://nonleague.blogspot.com/

I’ve added a direct link to my reports within my list of ‘Matches Attended 2007-08’

My Matchday - 163 Welfare Ground

Brandon United 0v3 Prudhoe Town
Arngrove Northern League Division Two
15th March 2008
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This is my fifth attempt this season to tick off Brandon United’s Welfare Ground, each time I’d made plans to visit either vandalism or an act of God stopped me in my tracks, burned out dugouts, floodlight failure, a waterlogged pitch and even the roof of the stand almost blown down. This meant having to turn to my contingency plan and a revamp of my carefully planned out fixture list, but at last success, the game was on and I found the ground ok, even though I made the mistake that I’d been warned about, driving up the wrong dirt-track and ending up amongst the nearby allotments.
Brandon is a village, just south-west of Durham City, the clubs origins began by employees of waste paper company Rostrons, who formed a Sunday morning side in 1968, by 1974 they were re-branded as Brandon United, becoming one of the top Sunday morning clubs in the country, this was proven when winning the FA Sunday Cup in 1976, beating Brum side Evergreen 2-1 in the final.
In 1977 a switch to Saturday football, joining the Northern Alliance, winning 2 titles and 2 League Cups in 3 seasons, they resigned from the league in 1980 but an unsuccessful attempt to get into the Northern League meant a backward step into the Northern Amateur League, however the club finally fulfilled their ambition in 1983 via the Wearside League route, which also included a win in the Shipowners Cup during that brief spell.
They won the Northern League 2nd Division in only their second season, after nine years they were relegation, but again gained promotion at the turn of the century, they pushed on becoming Northern League Champions in 2002/03, the following season they finished 8th, but since then there’s been a steady decline, 18th then relegated the following year, 17th last season, with this campaign being their worst, tailed off at the bottom of the league, with only one solitary league victory all season.
I attended the reverse fixture last season when I visited
Kimberley Park and the status of both clubs have swapped over, last season it was Prudhoe who were languishing at the bottom, in danger of having to resign from the league, however they’ve made a steady improvement this season, but Brandon seem jammed in reverse gear, stuck at the bottom of a very steep hill.
The Welfare Ground has a capacity of 3,000, with the best gate of 2,500 in that FA Sunday Cup semi-final success, as I’ve already mentioned, this ground has took a bit of a good hiding this season and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but all things considered the ground doesn’t look to bad. The ground’s clubhouse is outside in the car park, where you find the turnstiles, the ground is up a flight of stairs giving a ground a lofty position, so it can get a wee bit cold, which means a good supply of hot Bovril is needed to keep the bloodstream going.
The nearside has open standing which continues behind each goal, with a long single bench running full length between both corner flags, the main spectator area is on the far side. This is split into three different sections, a standing terrace, a row of four bench-type seats and sandwiched in between a separate seated section with a surrounding wall, which is more likely used for press and VIP purposes should the occasion arise. There is another small built up terrace next to the stand and to the other side there’s portakabins used as a canteen and club facilities, the players changing rooms are in a separate building in the far corner.

An encouraging start to the game from Brandon, they looked a better side than I expected, carving out several good openings in the first ten minutes, but unfortunately they lacked conviction or someone willing to take responsibility in front of goal, this was typified after 20 minutes, when Dixon beat the offside trap, he ran on with only the keeper to beat, but instead of shooting he decided to square the ball to the supporting striker and from four yards out, with the goal at his mercy, he somehow missed the target, shooting into the side netting, not a candidate; but easily the winner of ‘miss of the season’ I won’t mention the lads name, but no.7, you know who you are. As is usually the case, they were punished for their poor finishing when Potts gave Prudhoe the lead on 36 minutes, a free kick from the right was flicked on and the burly striker’s diving header found the roof of the net, giving Prudhoe the half time lead(I later found out this was an own goal, my eyes must have deceived me)
By the hour mark it was game over, a megatastic mistake from the United keeper, spilling the ball and letting it run under his legs to present Brown to score with ease and minutes later a goal from Potts, direct from a long clearance from the Town keeper, he ran on to the end of another flicked header before picking his spot with a good finish to make it 3-0. Prudhoe had several chances to add to their tally, while that encouraging start (and the hope I would see a rare Brandon win) from the hosts seemed a distant memory.
Due to the backlog of home fixtures, Brandon still have other opportunities to reward their home support with that winning feeling this season, the club issued a reasonably good match day programme for the bargain price of 75p, there was an informative piece titled ‘This week in history’ and on March 15th 44BC the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar in a conspiracy led by Brutus and Cassius. I remember learning about that in school and seeing it reconstructed on TV programmes like I Claudius and Rome. Who could forget those immortal last words “ infamy infamy they’ve all got it in for me” before the first of those 23 stab wounds ended the dictators life, or am I getting confused with something else? I should maybe ‘carry on’ writing about football grounds, instead of trying to be clever by adding a bit of culture to my posts.
Anyway good luck to Brandon United for the rest of the season, a bit of self belief and they’ll be ok, I’ve never heard of any news regarding relegation from the Northern League, so they’ll be able to start again next season with a clean slate, surely they can’t have another season as bad as this one, so the only way is up, well.. they can’t get any lower can they?




Links-
Simple Pieman’s visit(March 2005)

Football Bog Blog no.11


Ground no.163 Welfare Ground - Matchday Web album(15 pictures)

My Matchday - 162 Ashley Travel Stadium

Skelmersdale United 2v2 Gateshead
Unibond Challenge Cup Semi Final
(a.e.t. Skelmersdale win 4-2 on penalties)

8th March 2008
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Skelmersdale United are a club based in West Lancashire, a former coal mining town which became a New Town in 1961, designed to cope with the oversized Scouse population from nearby Merseyside, the town still has strong links with Liverpool with the M58 connecting the two towns. The name stems from old Norse speak, which translates as “Skjadmarr‘s Valley” and is more commonly known locally as “Skem.”
Skelmersdale United were formed in 1882 as founder members of the Lancashire Combination, the greater part of their history was spent between this and the Liverpool County Football Combination, where they found their true niche, winning the title 10 times as well a further 18 cups wins.
The club’s most successful side played in the late 1960’s/ early1970’s, with memorable campaigns in the FA Amateur Cup, after losing out in ’67 to Enfield, they won the trophy four years later hammering Dagenham 4-1, Skem will forever remain in the football record books, the first of those two Wembley finals saw 75,000 under the old twin towers, the highest ever attendance for a non major final or international.
After two league titles in three seasons in the Cheshire County League, the club turned professional in 1971/72, spending a brief period in the Northern Premier League, even though the team didn’t struggle on the field, they found life difficult financially, and made the decision to again return to the Lanc Combo in 1976/77.
Their route back to the Unibond League started as founding members of the North West Counties League in 1982, after the odd promotion and relegation in the NWCL they won promotion to the Northern Premier League Division One in 2005/06 and after the reconstruction of the league became inaugural members of Unibond First Division North this season.
Some famous players started life playing for United, the Futcher brothers, Wolves striker John Richards and two ex-Toon stars that I’m particularly fond of, striker Peter Withe and “He’s here, he’s there, he’s every F….in where, Mickey Burns, Mickey Burns” but the most notably
name is former Liverpool legend Steve Heighway, who gained a Republic of Ireland cap while still a Skem player.
Ashley Travel Stadium (originally Westgate Interactive Stadium) is the clubs third ground, the club played the majority of their early life at the spacious Sandy Lane before moving to Whitemoss Park in 1958, the club took the decision to relocated to the present ground a mile and a half away on the Stanley Industrial Estate in 2002, when under construction, the club shared with neighbours Burscough at Victoria Park for a season until the ground was opened for the 2004/05 season.
The ground has a capacity of 2,300, which 240 are seats, this is made of two basic stands with blue seats which are separated by the players tunnel, the nearside has the turnstiles, toilets and refreshment bar, with a sheltered cover which is made of scaffold supports with a Perspex roof resting against the rear of the clubhouse. There’s a separate control area which is a portakabin with a balcony type-thing in front, all these amenities are painted blue to give a more attractive appearance. The remaining two sides are left open, with hard standing and grass banks, there is plenty of vacant space so there’ s room for an improvements in the future if required.

As far as the matchday goes, to say it was eventful and action-packed would be an understatement, a broken down coach, winning the raffle, a tragic mystery tour journey through the dark satanic mill towns of Lancashire, torrential rain, a goalkeeper giving stick to a fan, a fan attacking a goalkeeper, a Anti-Geordie official from the FA, a police escort out of town and to top it all off 120 minutes of football with a penalty shoot-out, all this for a bargain priced £20.
We departed the Civic Centre just after 10am in an old banger of a coach (Toon Army booked 40 coaches for Liverpool and we got what was left over) an accident on the A66 meant a diversion to the A57, which added time to our journey, this resulted in a late arrival at 2.10pm. I headed straight into their spacious club house where I met up with 100FGC squad no.34 David Poole aka
‘The Groundhog’ who became a member of the Heed Army for the day. Another coach full of Gateshead supporters arrived just prior to kick-off, I knew a few of them, but had never seen them at a Heed match before, so I greeting them with jibes of “Glory hunters” but appreciated them making the journey to support their home town club.
The first half of the game was a quiet affair (compared with what was to follow) conditions didn’t help as the rain went from spitting-heavy-torrential as the first half progressed, Skem took the lead in the 6th minute, a ball over the top caught the Gateshead defence square leaving Chris Almond room to pick his spot and lob the ball over the keeper’s head, the only key moment in the first half apart from an Armstrong effort just before half time.
The match reflected the weather, the second half was greeted with bright sunshine and a brighter start from the Heed forcing some fine saves from keeper McMahon, the introduction of Davy Southern on the hour gave Gateshead the edge and it was his superb cross which found Graeme Armstrong at the far post, with a sublime glancing header into the corner
of the net. The game was end to end stuff with both teams looking to win the game in normal time, good saves from both goalies kept the score at 1-1 on the full time whistle.
During the second half a few Gateshead supporters gave the Skem no.1 a bit stick, which is usually taking as a bit harmless fun and it’s something you’ll find at any football ground in the country, but this keeper took exception to the taunts by reacting with verbal’s and hand gestures and even went crying to the referee about it. The situation then got out of hand when 2 minutes into extra-time Gateshead took the lead, again Southern was the provider and Jamie Harwood slid home after just coming on as a sub, a ‘fan’ then jumped on to the field to ridicule the keeper on conceded the goal, which lead to a bit of WWE action, as Ryan McMahon wrestled the lad to the ground before being taking away by security. The incident didn’t just mar the game, it marred the reputation of the Heed Army, the rest of the supporters were saddened by the incident, along with the chairman and officials from the club, but the actions of one individual shouldn’t mean we should all be tarred with the same brush, but an official from the FA who was present didn’t agree, his comment was, and I paraphrase; “ your all the same, you have the same accent don‘t you”
If that wasn’t enough, tempers flared 10 minutes before the end of extra-time, a cross into the box was met with an attempted clearance from the Tynesiders centre-half Jamie Curtis, but the moment before he was about to volley the ball away, Skelmersdale striker Prescott went to chest the ball which resulted in Curtis catching ball and player together, after a loud scream from the striker, the referee paused before pointing to the spot after a nod from the linesman. Donnelly made no mistake with the spot kick, but as he walked past Curtis celebrating the goal, Jamie made a remark and Donnelly gave him a dry slap in the face, which lead to flared uproar on both sides with the offending player giving the red card.
The final whistle and a score of 2-2, after both teams gave their all over 2 hours of football, what happened next? Well that was obvious to everyone in the crowd even before the penalty shoot-out began, who was going to be the hero? There was only going to be one man to grab the headlines, Skem goalkeeper Ryan McMahon who saved penalties from Cave and Bowey, before stepping up the score the winning kick himself to book a place in the League Cup final 4-2 on pens.
Skelmersdale United are currently top of Unibond North, they have a hard working side who should get promotion, if not as champions then at least through the play-offs, they’ll hold their own comfortably next season in the Unibond Premier (they must be good to match one of the best teams in that league) but before then they face Eastwood Town in the League Cup final, best of luck to them, but I honestly don’t think they’ll need it.
Just prior to the end of the game a couple of police were present, but as I left the ground was amazed to find the riot-squad in attendance, who stopped us returning to the clubhouse and were here to escort us out of Skelmersdale, a bit over the top me thinks, but all part of what was a remarkable day, which will live long in the memory, but not for all the right reasons.
Update May 2008
Skelmersdale went on to lose the cup final 3-0 to Eastwood Town and also let their position at the top of the league slip, eventually finishing 3rd.
In the play-off semi final they easily took care of Curzon Ashton 3-0, before coming up against the might of FC United of Manchester away in the final.
A controversial match saw Skem lose 4-1 at Gigg Lane in front of 3258, they had two players sent off and conceded two penalties, which added to a frustrating afternoon and a poor finish to their otherwise great debut in the Unibond League.

Some new bits..

The site has been updated with new features in the side panel bar.
  • ‘Matchdays Cup Finals’ has it’s own section, I already have one final planned and hopefully all going well, there could be at least another two cup finals to look forward to at the end of the season.
  • Squad Gallery (or should that have been rouges gallery) features photographs from the 100 Football Grounds Club squad, taking at different matches and occasions when I’ve met the rest of the Groundhoppers Union.
  • New panoramic pictures from grounds visited during 2008