Yorkshire Main v Easington United Saturday 14th May 2011 Black Dragon Premier Division

There was only one place to go today, Edlington Lane, home of Yorkshire Main. Having already won the Floodlit Cup, the Doncaster Challenge Cup and the League Cup, Main were looking to secure the League title to their haul. A win against the Villagers would ensure the title was theirs. To add a bit of spice to the game, Easington were one of only two teams to beat Main this season.
There is a sense of deja vu when I arrive at the ground. As at last weeks game there is a Pithead wheel at the entrance to the car park.

This carries on as I meet up with two Scarborough Athletic fans who were at the Thorne game last week, and to add to the "this is like last week" feel, there is a cricket pitch with a game going on in front of the ground.

At the entrance there is a list of matches from the 23rd April to 18th May which sees Main play a massive 14 games in 25 days, the consequence of a successful season.

The entrance brings you into the ground in the corner with the pitch to the left and all the facilities, tea hut, changing rooms etc. to your right. There is a mesh fence separating you from the pitch at his point and you have to make your way past the dressing rooms to access the ground itself. This brings you the nearside touchline and into a covered stand with the dugouts either side of it.

I make my way through this stand and it brings out into the open and after this there is a simple railing separating you from the pitch.

I carry on into the corner and this is the view looking back to where I came from.

There is a fence at this end of the ground and one or two balls were lost over during the per game warm up. This is the shot from the other corner and you can see the Easington players warming up.

The side opposite the entrance side has a large covered stand with a small open terrace after the stand. There are several crush barriers and three floodlights along this side too.

I carry on down this side to the covered stand. In this shot you can see the cricket pitch sight screens in the background.

This is the view of the stand from the far side.

The next shot shows the terracing after the stand and as you can see it only runs a short way before the grassy area starts that runs to the corner of the ground.

I carry on the corner and this is the shot taken showing behind the goal at the entrance end. I have no idea what the large post is and they are dotted around the ground. We came to the conclusion that were probably where the previous boundary of the ground fencing was.

This is the view back to the covered stand from the same corner.

As expected, Main started the game on the attack but after weathering the early pressure Easington took the lead on 19 minutes when a great ball to Gavin Thurkettle saw him fire the ball past the Main keeper. But this only urged Main on and after 5 minutes they were level when Steffan Cairns cut inside and put it past Holden in the Easington goal.

Main took the lead in first half stoppage time when Holden dropped a cross allowing Adam Watson to slot the ball home.

The half time went soon after and Main were halfway to sealing the Championship. There was good news at half time as for the second time this season I won the half time raffle.
The second half started well and it was clear Easington believed that the game was far from over and made several attacks early on. However, from one of those attacks Main went on the counter attack and Watson beat the keeper to the ball and calmly lobbed it over him into the back of the net to make it 3-1.

For a while it was all one way traffic as Main looked to increase their lead. Holden made several excellent saves and some determined defending was keeping Main at bay.

Easington never gave up and did put Main under pressure towards the end of the game but were unable to find the breakthrough to set up a grandstand finale.

The final whistle went and the Main players and staff celebrated the League championship with some bottles of champagne.

There was just time to have a quick chat to Easington's Mr Lusmore, the man behind the superb "A Game In Four Quarters" blog, where you can read all about the day to day trials and tribulations of the Villagers.
This was a really enjoyable game to watch and the friendly welcome and good company made it a great end to the season.


More pictures of Edlington Lane here.

There are more pictures of the ground, action and the fans here.

Yorkshire Main 3-1 Easington United
Att: 55
Admission: £2
Programme: £0.50