Athersley Recreation v Grimsby Borough Saturday 13th October 2012 NCEL Division One

Sheerian Park, home of Northern Counties East new boys Athersley Recreation was my first new ground of the season. Situated in Barnsley, the first task was to spot the entrance which we knew was a gap between some houses. However it was easier to spot than we were anticipating due to a new sign on the road.

Entrance sign

This led you to the entrance to the car park.

The driveway down to the large car park

The turnstiles bring you in at one end of the ground with a seated stand to your right, Club Shop to your left and the ground laid out in front of you.

View from the turnstile

The seated stand behind the goal has approx. 150 seats with an area for wheelchairs and is one of the off the shelf type stands but with the team colours of black and white picked out in the seats.

Seated stand

 I decide to go clockwise round the ground so I head back to the turnstiles where you come back to the club shop which is decorated in black and white with a Club badge on the sign giving it a very smart appearance.

The Club Shop

I head down to the corner of the ground. There is a single level hard standing all the way around the ground with a post and railing perimeter fence. This side of the ground has a large covered four step stand straddling the half way line.

View down the side of the ground

Close up of the stand

Just after the stand there is a gate which gives access to an outer pitch which is used for pre-match warm ups. The ground opens up after this with a grassy area before it narrows up again leading to the corner.

View past the stand to the corner

This end of the ground has a very large grass area behind the goal and walkway. The Club has plenty of room for future expansion.

Behind the goal at the far end

I make my way down this end and the following shot is the view of the other side of the ground where the dugouts are to be found.

The "dugout" side of the ground

There is still plenty of room down this side and behind the fencing there are more pitches and another warm up are. 

Down to the dugouts

The dugout area is very smart with the Club colours in use again, They are separated  from the spectators with a very neat gate and fencing.

The Dugouts

This has brought me back to the end I started at and the toilets, Changing rooms, tea hut and hospitality are situated. You make your way through a gate to access the tea hut and I head through to join my fellow Boro fans I've travelled with. When I get there I notice there is also a TV room and a kids trampoline as well as lots of seats.

The TV Room

My fellow Boro fans are being treat like royalty and soon as I turn up I am given a coffee and biscuits. The hospitality and warm welcome are second to none and I can only give my belated thanks to everyone who took the time to make us feel so welcome.

Pick up a Penguin

The time passes very quickly and it is soon time to make our way out for the match.

The teams meet and greet

As this is a catch up post I will not go into great detail about the game. The significant moment in a hard fought first half came on 37 minutes when the lino flagged for a handball against Boro's Unsworth. Now how that was given I do not know, because even if it did hit him on the arm (which it didn't) it was a case of ball to arm. Despite the protests the penalty was dispatched to the Rec the advantage,

John 'Peanut' Waugh bursts forward

 The half finished with no further score. The second half started disastrously for Boro with Lee Bennett making it 2-0 after only three minutes of the half gone.

Rec player clears the ball before Steve Davies gets there

The remainder of the second half saw Boro huff and puff but they could not breach the well organised Rec defence. The Boro management went all out for the goals to try and pull something back but this led to a third goal for the Rec on 84 minutes by Jack Briscoe which ended the contest. Final score was 3-0 to a very good Athersley side who definitely had the edge over Boro on the day.

Apart from the result, we had a great day out and were made very welcome by Athersley, the only way is forward for this Club.

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

Athersley Recreation 3-0 Grimsby Borough
Att: 165
Admission: £4
Programme: £1.00