Stocksbridge Park Steel v Hucknall Town Saturday 1st January 2011 Evo-Stik Premier Division

A thank you and an apology to start this report. Inside the ground I nipped to the toilet before carrying on with my photos and put my camera on top of the drier while I used the facilities. Fortunately for me Dan from Nottingham came in and stopped it sliding onto the floor, so that's the thanks dealt with. The apology also goes to Dan and his lovely girlfriend, whose name I did not find out, many apologies for that. But the real apology is for talking them both to death, I hope it did not spoil your enjoyment of the day too much!


I've also found out that Uwdi from the brilliant "Where's The Tea Hut" blog was also here, but he obviously knew I was about and kept himself out of my way. Anyway, his report on his visit can be found here, and it's better than mine as he has a picture of the Lady Mayoress, how can I compete with that!
Anyway, back to the report. The turnstile brings you in the ground in the corner and elevated above the pitch.


The facilities are all at this level including a smart Clubhouse, dressing rooms, tea room and Club shop.

I take the steps down to pitch level and as you turn to the left there is a decent sized covered standing area behind the goal at this end.

Past this is some hard standing which leads to the other side of the ground which is not accessible.

The fencing along this side is, as far as I am aware, temporary, as there is a cricket pitch beyond this is used during the summer.

I head back the way I came and come to a section of terracing which is not in use any more and it has white railing to prevent anyone using it.

After the steps there is yet another section of terracing which you can use but on this wet and cold day there were not many takers. This in turn leads you onto the impressive seating stand decorated out in the Club colours of blue and yellow.

After the stand there is hard standing with a large grass bank rising up to the car park behind the stand.

The end opposite where I came in has a strip of hard standing with another grassy bank behind it which the Club has used to position a number of advertising boards on.

After this I made my way back to the covered seating stand where I watched the whole game sheltering from the incessant rain. The seats are apparently from Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough ground and are good old fashioned slatted tip up seats, lovely.

The game kicked off in driving rain and considering the conditions and the fact that neither team had seen much action in the past month turned out to be a decent game. There were plenty of chances for both sides and Stocksbridge were twice denied a goal by the offside flag, which to be honest one was definitely onside if not both. The locals were not slow in letting the lino what they thought of his decisions. The only goal of the half and indeed the game, came on 34 minutes when a mishit shot found Stocksbridge's Colin Marrison on his own in the box and he calmly slotted home.

1-0 at half time. Hucknall came out for the second half with the intent of keeping the ball down and this paid dividends for them. The only problem was Stocksbridge's keeper, Ben Scott. I honestly lost count of the number of brilliant saves he made in the second half and the victory was assured by his fantastic performance. The final whistle went with Stocksbridge picking up three hard won points and I think on another day Hucknall would have won but the man of the match performance by Scott denied them.

All in all a really good day out. Nice ground, decent game, friendly Club, met some very nice people (thanks to Dan & his girlfriend), could only have been improved by actually meeting Uwdi and getting a picture of the Mayoress!

More pictures of the Look Local Stadium here.

Stocksbridge Park Steel 1-0 Hucknall Town
Att: 160
Admission: £7
Programme: £1.50
Badge: £3