ARMTHORPE WELFARE (Welfare Ground, Church Street)

NORTHERN COUNTIES EAST LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION, ARMTHORPE WELFARE 1-5 BRIGHOUSE TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 62

It was the last Saturday of 2013 and I woke up with a serious case of "can't be bothered today" I eventually shook myself  out of my malaise and made a last minute decision to head across the Pennines for some NCEL action.

Armthorpe is a village near Doncaster and, like most villages in the area, was known for it's coal mining. The Armthorpe pit was named Markham Main and it was closed in 1996.   When the 1980's miners' strike finished in 1985, Markham Main was the last Yorkshire pit to return to work, three days later.

The football club was founded in 1926 and on their club badge a miner features predominantly. Armthorpe joined the Northern Counties East Football League in 1983 and were promoted to the Premier Division in 1985, where they have remained ever since.


Today was not Armthorpe's day and it was a comfortable win for the visitors, whose pace on break caused untold problems to the Wellie back line. The game was actually a decent end-to-end affair, the big difference being every time Brighouse broke clear they looked like scoring. They were 3-0 up at the break thanks to goals from Tom Matthews (3 & 13) and Joe Jagger (27) and it could have easily been double that such was Town's threat. 

The homesters performance in the second period restored a bit of pride and they actually began to test the Town 'keeper. They did score through Tony Hattersley (66) but this was, unfortunately for them, sandwiched between further goals from Jagger (58) and  Ernest Boafo (73).


A nice friendly club (the old secretary even gave me a call back to confirm the game was on) and the pie, peas & gravy were excellent! So glad I made the effort today.


This was my final ground of 2013, so may I take this opportunity to wish all readers of this blog a Happy and Peaceful 2014. Hopefully see you next year!