After a few weekends of revisits, including a great win for Leicester against Scunthorpe, a new ground beckoned in the shape of The Brumby Hall Sports Ground, home of Appleby Frodingham.
It also gave me another chance to see one of favourites in the NCEL, Brodsworth.
The ground is situated not far from Scunthorpe town centre and only a few minutes walk from the station. I parked up and after taking a few photos outside made my way into the ground.
There was no one taking admission and the only people around seemed to be players or coaches so I carried on to take my photos inside.
You enter and find yourself about a third of the way along one side with all the facilities contained in the Sports Centre building to the right. I front of the building there is a hard standing area with the rear of this covered by the overhang of the building. There is a tea hut at one end of this area with the changing rooms and toilets running along the rest of the building.
I head anti clockwise and head towards the far end. This has hard standing running along the whole length with a fence separating the ground from the road that leads to it.
The far side of the ground has further hard standing along it’s length with a combination of fencing and a hedge enclosing the ground.
Behind this side of the ground you can see the new leisure centre that is being built, at a cost of £21 million.
The end where the car park is sited has a green temporary fencing which is taken down when the cricket season is under way, with the cricket square behind it.
Back to where I came in I go past the entrance and there is a new seated stand which as I understand has only been here since the beginning of the season.
I now go and get a hot drink and ask about paying my entrance, getting a programme and a badge. I’m informed that the guy that does this has not arrived yet and not to worry, he’ll find me!
I’m asked by one of the Appleby coaches if I’ve got all the photos I want, and I have a chat with him for a few minutes. I then get talking to one of the Brodsworth coaches and he gives me the low down on their current situation and how he seems the game today. He is fairly optimistic they can win especially with the return of one of their experienced strikers.
The guy with the badges and who collects the entrance money turns up and the reason he is late is because he has been to the early kick off at Glanford Park where Scunthorpe hosted Doncaster. As I take a seat in the stand I meet two other ground hoppers who have also been to the Scunthorpe game, I think they came from Norfolk for their double.
The game saw a late replacement in goal for Frod when regular keeper Lee Crookes failed a fitness test and ex-outfield player and current committee member 42 year old Darren Fogg stepped in between the sticks!
He need not have worried though. Broddy have only scored seven goals in thirteen matches this season and to be honest they did not create many chances today to add to their tally, and to be fair the Frod defence did an excellent job of protecting their debut keeper.
It only took 4 minutes for Frod to breach the Broddy defence and it was Dale Leathley fired past the keeper from just inside the box. After 10 minutes I was fearing the worst for Broddy but their opponents finishing was poor at times and some great saves from their keeper kept the score at 1-0 at half time.
The second half saw the pattern of the game stay the same with Frod missing an awful lot of good chance. Broody came back into the game gradually and indeed could have had an equaliser themselves if they had finished better. It took Frod until the 82nd minute to make the game safe with the second goal of the game. James Hare played a neat one-two with Tom Finnigan before slotting home inside the near post.
The win put Frod five points clear of Broddy who remain rock bottom with just one point with a minus 39 goal difference.
A really enjoyable game and a very friendly welcome from the officials of Appleby Frodingham which is very appreciated.
More pictures of The Brumby Hall Sports Ground
here.Appleby Frodingham 2-0 Brodsworth Welfare
Att: 41
Admission: £4
Programme: £1
Badge: £3
The turnstiles bring into the ground in the corner of one of the ends. I go straight ahead, clockwise, and on this side of the ground there is a decent sized covered seating stand.
After the stand there is two step terrace with a barrier at the back with an overgrown area behind this.
This leads onto the opposite end to where you come in and there is a covered terrace running nearly the whole length of the end.
This then brings you to the real reason why everyone loved this ground, The Fenman Stand.
The "stand" is in fact a large Dutch Barn and the story is that a director bought two of them for his farm but only needed one and so it found it's way to the football ground. It really was a magnificent site and I make no apologies for posting several pictures of it.
As you can see from the next picture, the elevated section at the back of the stand was closed when I visited. You can also see the roof structure really well and the barrel shape of the roof is also visible.
There are two floodlights rising up through the roof, which can be seen more clearly on the next picture.
I know have reached the end where I came in. There is an almost identical covered stand as at the other end. As you look at it from the Fenman Stand there is a Clubhouse in the left hand corner and in the opposite corner there is a Board Room and the Club Shop.
To be honest I didn't really care how good the game was now as I was in hopping heaven with this fantastic ground full of character. However I was also in for a treat in this respect too. Wisbech took the lead against their opponents but were then blown away by the pacy Dunstable team who went on to score five unanswered goals. A really enjoyable game on a fantastic ground.
More pictures of Fenland Park here.
