✔730 The Linden Club

Cleethorpes Town 4-1 Winterton Rangers

Pre-Season Friendly

Tuesday 25th August 2020

  

Cleethorpes is a seaside resort on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry before developing into a resort in the 19th century. 

The name derives from the words clee, an old word for clay, and thorpes, an Old English  word for villages.

(population:nearly 40,000)

Birthplace of thespians Patricia Hodge, Patrick Wymark, Michele Dotrice, Vivean Gray(Mrs Mangel in Neighbours) TV presenter Helen Fospero and legendary Grimsby Town and Toon number 9 Bill Appleyard. 

The club was established in 1998 as the Lincolnshire Soccer School with Tommy Watson playing for and managing the club. As LSS Lucarly's, they joined the Lincolnshire League in 2003 and changed their name to Cleethorpes Town in 2008.

The Owls reached the FA Vase final in 2017, but lost out to South Shields at Wembley. 

Lincolnshire League 2003-2005

Central Midlands League Premier Division 2005-06

Humber League 2006-2009 - Promoted from Division 1 to Premier Division 2006-07 (finished 3rd)

Lincolnshire League 2010-2012 - Champions 2011-12

Northern Counties East League 2012-2017 - 

Division One Champions 2012-13

Premier Division champions 2016-17

League Cup winners 2016

Northern Premier League Division One 2017-present

The myenergi Stadium

The Linden Club

Clee Road

Grimsby

DN32 8QL

Capacity 2,065

The pitch is set back from the entrance and clubhouse, with the main stand on one side, an open seated structure behind one goal and a covered terrace opposite. 

The dugouts are on the near side with hard standing on all sides. The main stand is three structures added together, having two similar stands which sandwich an executive type seating area.

Cleethorpes Town 4(Hannah 30,58 Vernon 44 Walker 61)

Winterton Rangers 1(Walker 27)

Pre-Season Friendly

7.30pm ko

Att.200

Admission £5

Pin badge £3

Coffee £1.20

The Owls came back from a goal behind to record a convincing 4-1 win on a wet and windy night on Clee Road. Josh Walker fired Winterton into a 27th minute lead, but the hosts quickly responded with a fast flowing move finished off by Ross Hannah. 

At the end of the half, another quick passage of play was rounded off by Scott Vernon and further second half goals by Hannah and a volley by Paul Walker wrapped up a good performance.

#HeedHopper

This week we should have been in California celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary. The way this year has turned out, we are happy just to be on holiday, even though we’ve had to swap the west coast of America for the East coast of England. Our five day mega pub crawl started off in Lincolnshire with an overnight stay in Cleethorpes.
After stopping for refreshments at the Yardborough Hotel and The Barge in Grimsby, we arrived in Clee at 2.30pm. The GBG pubs ticked off during our stay were Willey’s, Nottingham House, Message In A Bottle, No.2 Refreshment Room, Spider’s Web, Crow’s Nest and finishing off in the Coliseum Picture House ‘Spoons. 

Around The Alliance 24

I visited Stobswood Welfare last week, which was featured in my first blog post of the season. I followed up those opening games, with another two Northern Alliance grounds at the end of last week.

 Wideopen is a village just to the north of Gosforth in North Tyneside. The village is present on an 1860s Ordnance Survey map as 'Wide Open' but nowadays it’s written as one word, although the road signs on the A1 and the outskirts of the village still have it as two.

Wideopen & District FC joined the Northern Alliance in 2007 and this will be their fourteenth consecutive season in Division Two. The club play at Lockey Park, which is a large stretch of parkland with a 3G court and two football pitches, with the main one fully railed in front of the changing room block. 

Wideopen faced Northern Alliance Division One side Forest Hall, who found the home defence wide open as Chris Mason fired them into a second minute lead. The hosts improved as the first half progressed and drew level through Jack Desmond just before half time. The game remained pretty even until Mitch Thomas regained the lead for the visitors in the 52nd minute and they took full control, with a third from Brandyn Ford and Mitchell grabbing his second to make it 4-1 to the Hall. 

Thursday 20th August 2020

Pre-season Friendly

Wideopen 1(Desmond 43)

Forest Hall 4(Mason 2 Thomas 52,66 Ford 61)

Att.44hc

I visited Newcastle East End at the Swan Recreation Ground at the start of the 2018-19,in a season which ended in relegation to Division Two. The senior team now play home matches at Millers Dene, which is just off the Fossway in Walker. The ground has the changing rooms and the Snack Shack in the car park with a fully fenced off pitch behind the building.

An entertaining friendly against Rothbury saw the teams share six goals. East End took the lead in the 5th minute with a Lewis Laidlaw penalty, but the visitors replied when Gareth Rickarby fired home from a right wing cross. Lewis grabbed his second in the 35th minute before Rothbury hit back before half time, with a Tony Brown chip, then James Loughborough was on hand to make it 2-3

Just after the hour mark Rothbury could have extended their lead, but Brown’s penalty kick smacked off the crossbar. An injured player meant the Reds were down to ten men for the last fifteen minutes and the home team took advantage, with Laidlaw finally grabbing his hat-trick to make it 3-3. 

Saturday 22nd August 2020

Pre-season Friendly

Newcastle East End 3(Laidlaw 5pen,35,82)

Rothbury 3(Rickarby 15 Brown 42 Loughborough 45)

Att.40hc

Slight Return

After 140 days of no football, with my life evolving around playing my full part as a key worker and staying at home playing Subbuteo, it was nice to finally get out and watch a few games. It was also great to catch up with a few of my fellow Groundhopper pals at some of these matches.

The new season kicked off with a derby match in Darlington. I picked up Lee and headed down the A1 to Hurworth in the outskirts of the town. Hurworth Albion are a relatively new club, established as a junior set up in 2017, with a senior team making their debut in the Wearside League Division 2 this season. 

The HASCA ground is hidden within a housing estate in Crossfield Close. There’s plenty of land with pitches each side of the central main pitch, with the changing rooms and snack bar in the car park entrance.

This was the club’s first match and they showed a lot of promise against a more experienced Darlington Town side. After trailing by two goals and holding their own for most of the first half, the visitors bossed the second period with a hat-trick by Bushy and a brace by Johnny Ward making it 7-0 at full time.

The following Wednesday I headed up to South Moor on the edge of Stanley in County Durham, just 24 hours after the latest FA directive regarding Step 7 friendlies, which ridiculously stated that we weren’t allowed to attend matches at this level. Although it's absolutely fine to gather on beaches, socialise in pubs and restaurants, but standing in a field watching a bunch of blokes booting around a leather ball is far too dangerous. I arrived at the ground and saw a few familiar faces, watching the action with Futbology Toon fan #1 Glenn Wallace, Alan Kenny Rogers and my stalker Andrew Clarke. 

South Moor AFC are another new Wearside League club, based at the Greenland Community Primary School which has a full railed off pitch. South Moor faced Brandon United who went nap in the first half with a hat-trick from the centre forward, a deflected free kick from the number 7, and with the final touch of the half a back post header from the centre-half. The hosts improved after the break and played well at the beginning of the second half, but a goal each from two of the Brandon substitutes and an own goal made it 0-8 at the whistle.

The Dowhill Hub is a ground I was totally unaware of. It is situated in between Hylton Castle and Boldon, off the beaten track east of Hylton Lane. The complex has three 4G pitches, two of which run parallel, plus another at the back of the changing rooms and gym. I met up with Lee at the game, although we kept our social distance, as I chose to watch the game outside the cage and help out as a ball boy.  As there are twinned pitches I could have watched two matches at once, but I was here to see new Wearside club Doxford Park take on one of my local teams - Felling Magpies. Doxford Park are based at Herrington CW (one on my list) but are playing their warm up matches at other venues. 

Doxy got off to a great start with Damien Knight scoring two well taking goals in the first quarter. (drinks breaks means a four period match) Ben McDonald grabbed a third with twenty minutes remaining, before the Felling number 9 headed in a consolation. With the last kick of the match Lury Moraes wrapped it up to make it 4-1 to the Wearside League newcomers.

On the following Wednesday, my London based ‘hopper mate - Mark Wilkins was staying in the north-east, so on a pleasant summer’s evening we headed up to Northumberland for a couple of pints and a match at Stobswood Welfare. After a drink in Morpeth we took the short drive to Stobswood. 

The civil parish has a population of about 120, with the majority of the houses built in support of the railway and the defunct brickworks that previously operated just to the east of the railway line. The Stobswood Welfare Recreation Ground has a large social club which overlooks the cricket and football pitch, which is railed off with a pair of dugouts on one side. The club first joined the Northern Alliance in 1977 and throughout the years have resigned then re-joined the league four times, the latest in 2018 when they moved from the Tyneside Amateur League

Stobswood faced Northeast Combination League side Blyth Rangers, leading at half time courtesy of a lovely 30 yard lob from James Oliver just before half time, which followed a penalty save by the Rangers ‘keeper Sam Bexton. (see picture)

Jake Baker scored a 20 yard free kick not long after the restart and the home side took control of the match, with two goals from Robert Baxter and right at the end Calvin Baston made it 5-0 to Stobby.  After an entertaining game the night was nicely finished off with a couple of GBG pubs ticks, namely the Northumberland Arms and The Running Fox in Felton.

The uncertainty of not being sure whether you can safely watch a game or not, meant I was going to chuck the season in as a non-starter and wait till things get back to some kind of normality. Last Saturday I still went to a match, but instead of looking for somewhere new to visit and being unsure if I could watch or not, I took my invisible dog Ringo for a walk around Blaydon, and while in the vicinity watched Winlaton Vulcans 6 Blaydon 2.

                                          (click on pictures to enlarge image)

 Matchday Stats (Pre-season friendlies)

724.HASCA Playing Field

- Saturday 1st August:

Hurworth Albion 0 

Darlington Town 7

(Wilson 18 Harker 41 Bushy 49,55,62 Ward 72,77) 

Admission £2.

725.Greenland CPS 

- Wednesday 5th August:

South Moor 0 

Brandon United 8

(#9 4,38,45+1 #7 40 #6 45+2 #12 65 OG 79 #14 84) 

726. Downhill Hub (p2)

- Saturday 8th August:

Doxford Park 4

(Knight 4,16 McDonald 70 Moraes 90) 

Felling Magpies 1

(#9 82)

727. Stobswood Welfare Recreation Ground

- Wednesday 12th August

Stobswood Welfare 5

(Oliver 44 Baker 59 Baxter 59,67 Baston 90+2)

Blyth Rangers 0