Goole AFC V Sheffield Saturday 5th February 2011 Evo-Stik Division One South

I've been to The Victoria Pleasure Ground before for a pre-season friendly and before I had a digital camera, so I've wanted to revisit to get some better photos. The weather was a lot greyer than the hot summers day of my previous visit and it was to get worse as the day progressed.

There is plenty of street parking around the ground and I am able to park virtually outside the turnstiles, which was especially handy after the game in the heavy rain that was falling.

The turnstiles bring you into the ground with the tea hut, Club shop and toilets to your left. In front of you the main stand with a terraced area and seats is in front of you. The pitch is to the right with another covered terrace opposite the main stand and a running track all the way around the ground.

I decide to go clockwise around the ground and so I head towards the main stand which is made up of a fairly large covered terrace and two lots of seating situated either side of the tunnel. The terraced area is arrived at first and is a good size with crush barriers situated at the front and halfway up.

After this is the first lot of seating with two rows of plastic tip up seats and three rows of bench type seats.

This is separated from the other seating by what looked like the board room or hospitality lounge and a metal cage for the players tunnel which has a removable section to allow you access around the ground.

There were also some interesting seats at the front of the stand which as I looked at them, made me wonder if they were used when the action on the pitch was just too awful to watch!

There was the next block of seating after this with a press box at the rear of it.

This was the end of the main stand but just after this was a small four step terrace with a crush barrier on the first level.

There was also an old section of terracing just after this which had obviously been replaced by the new section in the photo above.

The hard standing runs a lot further than the pitch in order to go around the running track and there is only a thin strip of hard standing running around the curve of this end.

I take another shot back to where I have come from.

At this point I decide to change my lens but as I have my hands full my mobile starts to ring, but I'm unable to get to it in time before it rings off. I check to see who it was and realise it is Uwdi from the brilliant "Where's The Tea Hut" blog who I saw was going to come here today and so I contacted him to see if he wanted to meet up after our near miss at Stockbridge. However it was to be a bit longer before we actually meet as his phone kept going straight to his voice mail; in the tea hut I reckoned!
I carry on to the side opposite the main stand where there is a decent sized five step covered terrace with a small bench situated at the back of one section. I venture onto the running track to get a picture of the welcome sign I used earlier in the blog. This is the picture from the running track of the stand.

I eventually get hold of Uwdi and head off to meet him in the main stand terracing. Just time for a shot looking back at this stand.

I take another shot from behind the goal of the main stand terracing and you can actually see Uwdi and Frugal Glenn on the terracing.

I finally reached Uwdi and Glenn and I have to say it was a pleasure to meet them and spend the match with them. I also ran into Chris, a Grimsby fan I'd met at Rossington last season and it was nice to see him again too.

So to the game. What a strange match it was too. The rain was coming down hard by kick off and I'm not sure if this was the reason for the poor start by both teams, but after 40 minutes it did not look promising for any goals.

But this all changed on 43 minutes and we went into the half time break with Goole leading 2-1. Goals from Allott and Harrison put TheVikings 2-0 up and Sheffield looked dead and buried even at this stage having lost their keeper and having to put outfield player Roney in goal as they had no keeper on the bench. However they were given a lifeline when Ruddiforth skillfully controlled the ball on the six yard line before back heeling it into the net.

On 49 minutes it was 2-2. Sheffield's Banks let fly from over 30 yards out and the ball hit the top corner. Incredibly, Sheffield took the lead on 77 minutes from the penalty spot by Cusworth after Purkiss was brought down in the box.

Goole did not test the stand-in keeper until late in the game and he proved equal to the free kick, tipping it round the post at full stretch. Sheffield scored a fourth on 88 minutes when Purkiss slipped the ball to Gregory who fired past Walker in the Goole goal. But they were not finished yet and a great run down the left by Gregory enabled him to put a deep cross to the far post where it was met by Cusworth who put a great header back across the goal into the net to make it 5-2. A remarkable comeback by Sheffield and a very disappointing result for Goole.

You can read "Where's The Tea Hut"'s report here.

More pictures of The Victoria Pleasure Ground here.

Goole AFC 2-5 Sheffield
Att: 189
Admission: £7