Thorne Colliery v Whatton United Saturday 7th May 2011 Black Dragon Premier League

I'd wanted to go to the Moorends Welfare Ground, home of Thorne Colliery for several years and I finally got the opportunity for the visit of Whatton United. The weather was superb and as I approached the ground there was a cricket match being played on the pitch that was behind the Main Stand.
As I parked up I met up with Neil and Bill, two of the Scarborough Athletic fans that I'd met on the CML Hop at Easington United last season. We made our way past the impressive stand to the "turnstiles". This basically was a gate with a friendly Club official coming over to take our money and show us where the programmes where.

The entrance brings you into the corner of the ground with the only stand to your left.

There is a wide grassy area behind the goal at this end.

The tea hut is also located at this end, painted in the Club colours of blue.

I head towards the only stand in the ground and I have to say how impressive it is. There are benches instead of plastic seats and they run more or less the whole length of the stand, with the criss cross of the steelwork supporting the roof above it.

The brick built dugouts are positioned in front of the stand.

I actually nipped onto the pitch to take a shot of the stand from the centre circle.

After the stand there is a large grassy area leading to the far end of the ground and this is the view looking back to the Main Stand, with the tea hut to the left of the picture and the dressing rooms situated in the brick building in the right of the picture.

The end opposite to the entrance is just a wide grassy area with trees marking the boundary of the ground and a fence separating it from the pitch.

I carry on to the other corner flag and this is the view from there.

The side of the ground opposite the Main Stand consists of the same fencing as the rest of the ground, but the trees are closer to the fence here than at any other point in the ground.

I make my way along this side and meet one of the home officials in the undergrowth searching for a couple of balls, something he tells me is a regular occurrence when the ball goes out on this side of the ground. This brings me back to the end I came in and I notice that on the other container that seems to store the groundsman's equipment there is a Club crest.

The crowd has been swelled by more Scarborough fans before kick off and there is a bit of a scramble for programmes but the very friendly Thorne officials hunt out some spares to make sure that everyone who wanted one has one.
The game starts and considering it is an end of season fixture it is very competitive, no one is on the beach just yet.

Whatton were soon on the attack and had a couple of early chances which went narrowly wide while Thorne had to rely on the counter attack to go forward. It was one of these counter attacks that brought the first goal. The ball was played forward and a mix up between the Whatton keeper and one of his defenders (pictured below) resulted in the ball falling to Thorne's Scott Holmes who put the ball into the back of the net.


This is the shot going into the goal, as you can see no defenders in sight.

I'd become the ball boy at this point as there were no other spectators at this end and I ended up having several chats with the visiting keeper who thanked me every time I retrieved the ball except one. This was because he was flattened by a Thorne player and was down for several minutes with a head injury. To his credit, he got up and carried on without whinging about the challenge. I could not see that happening in the professional game.
Half time arrived with no further score, but it had been a fairly entertaining game.

The second half started with Thorne in the ascendancy and to be honest they dominated the second half for long spells and Whatton had very few chances, which were matched by Thorne substitute keeper Greg Atkinson. Thorne in contrast wasted chance after chance, some of them seemed harder to miss than score.

The second goal eventually arrived with 10 minutes to go. A deep corner was met at the far post by Glen Rafferty who headed home to make it 2-0 to Thorne.

The final whistle went and the win saw Thorne move to 7th in the table, but a whopping 30 points behind champions Yorkshire Main, who Thorne had beaten 4-2 in their previous game.
I have to say that this was a really enjoyable day out and although there was not much to the ground, that Main Stand is one of my favourites and the warm welcome from the Club officials just added to the day.

More pictures of the Moorlands Welfare Ground here.

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

Thorne Colliery 2-0Whatton United
Att: ?
Admission: £2
Programme: £1

Clitheroe v Leigh Genesis Friday 29th April 2011 Evo-Stik Division One North

Watch the Royal Wedding or go to Shawbridge, home of Clitheroe FC? As you may have guessed, the decision was quickly made and the plan to journey to Lancashire snowballed as Mrs Reynard and Helen are quickly added to the list of travellers. We set off fairly early with the idea of spending a little time at Clitheroe Castle before the game. The views from the Castle are stunning as it towers above the local area with Pendle Hill and the Football ground clearly visible on a lovely sunny day.

After spending a very pleasant time at the Castle we made the short journey to the ground. Now I'd had a look at Google Maps to see the layout around the ground and although there seemed to be a car park at the ground there seemed no obvious way to get to it. On arrival at the ground it was no clearer but there was plenty of street parking available so we parked on the main road nearby. We could make out the entrance to the ground through the trees.

There was a board on the path further down the road advertising the game today.

As we made our way to the turnstiles it became clear why I could not see the road to the car park. There is not one! What there is, is a 8' between the houses and shops which leads to a small cobbled track and onto a small car park which is basically for players and officials. I would advise you to forget about parking here as it was full when we walked up at 2pm and there was not even space for a Leigh director who pulled up as we arrived.

The turnstiles bring you into the ground behind the goal with signs directing you to the various facilities on the wall facing you.

Mrs Reynard and Helen head off to the seats whilst I head anti clockwise to take my tour around the ground. To the right the terrace is a single level running to the corner past the bar.

To the left there is a single step up from the hard standing with some seats and benches dotted about the rear of the stand.

From the corner the standing narrows up before opening up again where the covered terraced stand begins.

There are separate areas of cover along this side although they are fairly closely sited together.It has a five step terrace running the length of the covered section.

Where the cover ends it becomes an open four step terrace running to the corner of the ground.

This brings you to the opposite end of the ground to where we came in. This consists of a covered stand that sits behind the goal and uncovered terracing either side of this. As you can see from the photo below there is a considerable slope on the pitch too, running from the terraced side down to the main stand side.

The stand itself has a four step terrace with some thin blue supports.

The ground narrows down as you approach the corner of the end.


The Main Stand is now in front of you with a wide hard standing area leading to it.

The stand has lovely old fashioned blue seats.

The stand itself has four rows of seats with those nearer the tunnel reserved for officials of both Clubs.

After the stand there is the tunnel which runs between the two dugouts that are situated on this side of the ground. Beyond this is the Blues Grub Tub, a quirky little stand with some bench style seats in it and then the Club Shop, Hospitality Suites and toilets.

Back on this side of the ground you are able to see the Club name and other information on the stand opposite.

Clitheroe were already out of the play offs and Leigh had already been relegated before today's game so I did not know what to expect from the game. However Clitheroe were obviously out to finish the season on a high and we were given a good game to watch.

The game was pretty even early on with Clitheroe probably having the better chances overall. The opening goal came on 27 minutes when Ashley Parillon was brought down by a Leigh defender in the box and Jack Higgins stepped up to put Clitheroe ahead.

Two minutes later it was 2-0 after a superb chip by Eddie Stanford from the edge of the box beat the Leigh keeper. Leigh had a good chance themselves after Steve Ferrigan saw his shot saved and the rebound was put wide by Neil Smith. The half time score was 2-0 to Clitheroe.
There was consternation in the seat next to me at half time when Mrs Reynard realised that the raffle winning numbers were hers! Bottle of red wine and chocolates were the prizes, very nice thank you.

Clitheroe put the pressure on at the start of the second half but it took then until the 68th minute to extend their lead. Chris Smally headed the ball back across the goal where it was met by Jack Higgins to score his second.

Two minutes later it was 4-0 when Ashley Parillon nipped in between hesitant defenders and stabbed the ball home. Another two minutes saw the score go to 5-0 when Rob Turner ran onto a good through ball and was able to lob the advancing keeper.

The rout was completed on 85 minutes with the best goal of the afternoon. Darren Green picked up the ball, went forward and unleashed a superb 25 yard strike that flew past the keeper.

There was no further score and Clitheroe ran out 6-0 winners. An enjoyable game with some good skills on show.
I would definitely recommend a trip to Shawbridge, but take the time to check out the Town itself, with a visit to the Castle well worth the visit.

More pictures of Shawbridge here.

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

Clitheroe 6-0 Leigh Genesis
Att: 264
Admission: £7
Programme: £1.50

Gainsborough Trinity v Alfreton Town Monday 25th April 2011 Blue Square Bet North

I wanted to stay fairly local over the Bank Holiday weekend, so on Saturday I had gone to Barton where it was nice to meet up with John, a hopper from York who I had first met at Brodsworth a couple of seasons back. I decided on a return visit to Gainsborough Trinity for today's game, a venue I've been to several times over the years but I'd never taken any pictures of. Today's visitors were Alfreton who had sealed the Championship on Saturday.
I am able to park up within sight of Northolme and had a very short walk to the ground.

I make my way around the outside of the ground and there are a good number of visiting fans about. There is a very smart sign advertising today's game at the corner of the ground at the apex of the roads there.

There are no turnstiles open at this side of the ground and so I carry on around the outside until I reach the far corner where I eventually find the turnstiles open.

The entrance brings you into the ground in the corner with a long covered terrace directly in front of you with another covered terrace to your left which is behind the goal. There is a tea hut in this corner too but I head off to my left to go on my journey around the ground. The covered terrace has smart blue crush barriers running the whole length and gives you a good view of the action.

As you reach the corner there is the Club shop and some open terracing to the corner. As you turn onto the side of the ground there are a couple of buildings, one of which is another bar, but is not open today, and another seems to be a hospitality unit. This then leads to the Main Stand which has two levels of seating and is an impressive looking stand.

The dugouts are situated either side of the stand and the ground opens out after it with a toilet block and another turnstile block.

There is a small terraced area before you reach the corner of this side of the ground with more blue crush barriers. The opposite end to where I came in is a large uncovered terrace which I always think looks really impressive and reminds me of how grounds looked when I first started going to games.

I really like this terrace and I do not apologise for putting a second picture of it on here.

This brings me back to the opposite end of the covered terrace that faced me as I entered the ground. It has a wide walkway along the bottom, with the ubiquitous blue barrier running it's length with a five step covered terrace beyond this. Once again it gives a good view of the action and is most impressive.

The back of the Supporter's Club bar, toilets and as I've already mentioned, the tea hut are found at the end of this stand. It also gives you a good view of the Main Stand across the pitch. There are four floodlight pylons in each corner with two more situated on either side of the half way line on both sides of the ground. Proper floodlights, not seen so often at modern grounds!

The game kicks off in glorious sunshine with Alfreton making eight changes from the side that won on Saturday, but there are still a few well known faces amongst their team, including Daryl Clare. Trinity start the game well but are unable to create many clear cut chances.

Alfreton break the deadlock on 26 minutes when Anthony Wilson scores with a spectacular overhead kick which I nearly caught in the photo below. Pity the ball is not in the shot!

Trinity huffed and puffed in search of an equaliser but found the Alfreton defence hard to beat. Wilson scored his second goal on 42 minutes with a good header from a corner by Ian Ross.
This was the half time score and to be honest it was game over for me as Trinity did not look they would get a goal. They began the second half in similar fashion to the first but again could not find a way past the resolute Alfreton defence.

Jake Moult added a third for Alfreton on 65 minutes to seal the victory, again following good play from a corner. The game saw more chances for both teams but there was no further score and Alfreton ran out comfortable winners of the game.
Northolme is a lovely ground to watch football at and if you have the chance, go, but I cannot guarantee the same glorious weather that I enjoyed.

There was a sad postscript to the game. I'd been talking to an Alfreton fan during the first half and he expalined why the travelling support was a bit muted,something which I'd noted, especially as they had just won the title. An Alfreton fan had collapsed before the game in a local pub and was well known amongst their support and so there was an air of concern for him. Sadly I later read on the Alfreton site, that supporter Graham Jones died. Sincere condolences are sent to all Graham's family and friends. RIP.

More pictures of Northolme here.

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

Gainsborough Trinity 0-3 Alfreton Town
Att: 474
Admission: £10
Programme: £2