Everyone I meet is very friendly and I'm greeted by several officials of the Club with a friendly hello from them all, very nice, although I could have done without the reminders of the score at forest thank you very much. The actual pitch is lower than the end of the ground I enter and the seated stand to my left. The Clubhouse and other facilities are all reached by a set of steps.
The opposite end and the open hard standing area on the right touchline are at the pitch level with no cover. The official capacity is 2,000 with 250 seats with a nice Clubhouse with bar and a very large TV with Sky Sports News on, (oh god its 5-1 now). I have a good chat with the gentleman who sells me my badge and he informs me that they have signed several new players since I saw Liversedge lose at Armthorpe Welfare at the start of the season. I wander off to take my stroll round the ground and take my pictures. I eventually take a seat in the covered stand just before kick off and strike up conversation with a very nice gentleman from Liversedge.
Liversedge started the game well and the right back Haigh and winger Walker kept combining well tot trouble the Long Eaton defence. Liversedge took the lead on 11 minutes when a goal kick went straight to Haigh who initiated a neat passing move which resulted in scoring header from Wasley. Both team continued to play some good football and both had opportunities to score. It was to be Long Eaton who scored next. A free kick was given on 39 minutes and it looked like the Sedge defender would easily clear it but he totally miskicked the ball and it ended up in the net, 1-1. A controversial moment followed when Long Eaton's Mabon latched onto a through ball and as he went past the centre half he was brought down. The assistant referee put his flag but the referee signalled no foul and he quickly put it back down again. Had the foul been given there would have been a red card and the game would have been very different. The half ended 1-1 with some frank exchanges of views between the Long Eaton players and the officials being made.
Long Eaton came out in the second half and took control of the game, stopping Sedge's controlled passing game and in particular Walker who was closely marshalled to stop him having as much of the ball as he did in the first half. It was not long before they took the lead with a smart shot from Newton on 53 minutes. For a long time it looked like Long Eaton were going to add to their goal tally, but Liversedge really went for it in the last 10 minutes but could not get past the strong Long Eaton defence. The game ended with Long Eaton having a couple of more chances to extend their lead, but without success.
An excellent day out, a really friendly Club and would recommend a visit to everyone.
Liversedge 1-2 Long Eaton United
Att: 73
Admission: £5
Programme: £1.20
Badge: £3
More photos of the Clayborn Ground here.
Wow Reynard, not seen this report before but I seem to have taken the same pictures and documented a very similar script for my game in the week over at Liversedge, uncanny! I didn't do it on purpose, honest. Perhaps we take the same medication (tee-hee).
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