EPPLETON COLLIERY WELFARE GROUND

WOMEN'S FA SUPER LEAGUE TWO, SUNDERLAND AFC LADIES 1-2 DONCASTER ROVERS BELLES, ATTENDANCE: 1,177

After the excitement of the Vase game at Alnwick Town, it was back down the A1 for the second part of today's double.

Sunderland Ladies play at the Hetton Centre, Hetton-le-Hole, which is the former home of Eppleton Colliery Welfare. Eppleton Colliery were formed in 1929 and were members of the Northern Alliance when they unfortunately folded in 2005. 

The ground was redeveloped when the club reached the Northern League in the early 1990's and received a further influx of cash when Sunderland Council relocated the villages community services to the Hetton Centre.

This building, which houses the community organisation ‘The Hetton Town Trust’ which rose from the former Eppleton Colliery Welfare,  overlooks the ground. The centre includes the Bob Paisley Bar, named after the former Liverpool manager who was born in Hetton-le-Hole and remains a legendary figure around these parts.

Tonight's game was being billed as the title shoot out between Sunderland Ladies and Doncaster Belles for the right to replace Everton Ladies (relegated after 20 years in the top division) in the Women's top flight. The kick off was put back to 7.30pm to allow Black Cat supporters who had been at the Sunderland v Stoke City game plenty of time if they also wanted to come along to this match. The club were rewarded with a 1,000+ crowd and it made for a fantastic atmosphere.

At the start of play Sunderland had 41 points with three to play and Doncaster had 33 points with four to play. A Sunderland win and the title is theirs. A Doncaster win and the fight continues, but the reality is that it is Sunderland's to lose whatever the result as Doncaster still need to win their all remaining games and hope Sunderland slip up somewhere.

Sunderland took the lead after 16 minutes when their top scorer Beth Mead headed home. The homesters had the best of the opening 45 minutes and had chances to extend their lead.

Whatever Belles manager Gordon Staniforth said at the interval certainly did the trick. Millie Bright hit the crossbar from a free kick before Jess Sigsworth (60) headed home a cross from Victoria Williams to level things up.

Sunderland did have a glorious chance to regain the lead but Abbey Joice fired wide with only Belles goalkeeper Nicola Hobbs to beat.

It was Williams who proved to be the match winner, with 7 minutes remaining, when she hit a superb curling effort into the top corner of Rachel Laws' net.

Some of the tackles were crunching as Doncaster battled to protect their lead and despite late pressure they held on to keep their title chances alive.

The Doncaster Belles had Sue Smith in their starting line up, someone who will be well known to lot of people through her punditry work on the BBC and Sky Sports, and I have to say she was superb. Everything seemed to go through her and she always kept the team going through her touch and movement. The only blot on her copybook was a booking for a dive.

Overall a very enjoyable evening and a really good game of football.

Highlights can be viewed by clicking here

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!

ROSSINGTON MAIN (Welfare Ground, Oxford Street)

NORTHERN COUNTIES EAST LEAGUE DIVISION ONE, ROSSINGTON MAIN 3-3 PONTEFRACT COLLIERIES, ATTENDANCE: 48

For the second week in succession, my first choice of game bit the dust early doors, so it left me once again seeking an alternative. As a Twitter user ( @christopher7590 ) following various leagues, the much maligned (but not by me) social network came into it's own as various clubs posted that their games were ON.

One of the first I clocked to confirm that there were no problems with their pitch was Rossington Main. Choice made.

Rossington Main were founded in 1919 as Rossington Colliery and the club moved to Oxford Street in 1921, and this has been it's home ever since. The club were founding members of the Central Midlands League in 1983 before gaining promotion to the Northern Counties East League in 1991. They merged with local club Rossington FC in 1998.

The game against Pontefract Collieries, turned out to be a cracker, especially the final 10 minutes.

There were plenty of opportunities but a combination of poor decision making in the final third, along with some wayward finishing meant neither goalkeeper was really tested. The opening goal arrived on 28 minutes through Brandon Fallon, who slotted home from inside the area.

Pontefract began the second half strongly and equalised on the hour when Brenton Leister tapped home at the back stick. Rossington worked their way back into the game and were the stronger side so when, on 84 minutes, Richard Spears went through one-on-one and fired home, the majority of crowd assumed that would be the three points for Rossington. Wrong!

More or less from the re-start, Leister (85) burst through and chipped the 'keeper for his second goal to make it 2-2. Within moments it was 3-2 to Rossington as Fallon (87) notched his second goal of the game. Pontefract piled forward in desperate search of equaliser and in stoppage time Steve Tierney rose to head home and level things up. 

The action wasn't finished there either as both teams had a chance to nick a winner, but it wasn't to be. Great entertainment and full credit to both teams.