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!

BOXING DAY 'STAFFORDSHIRE' DOUBLE

First and foremost, Happy Christmas to all readers of this blog. I hope Santa brought everything you desired!

It wouldn't be Christmas without a Boxing Day 'double header' but with the weather decidedly dodgy over the festive period, I thought it safe to abort my original planned double of Welton Rovers and Chippenham Town (though both games did go ahead and both finished 3-3) and make a short-ish trip to Staffordshire for an easy double.... 

11.30am
MIDLAND COMBINATION
PREMIER LEAGUE

STAFFORD TOWN 1
BROCTON 0

ATTENDANCE: 185

Stafford Town's Evans Park was opened in 2010

With Stafford's excellent Twitter feed giving the heads up about this game being on, there were plenty of 'hoppers' in amongst the bumper crowd to witness Stafford Town beat Brocton for the first time since 1992. 

The game was a typical tight derby affair with both teams cancelling each other out. The best of the first half chances went to the homesters and they took the lead after 29 minutes through James Cresswell, whose neat lob over 'keeper proved to be a worthy winner.

Brocton's upped their games in the second half and their efforts probably merited a share of the spoils but it was Town who held firm to earn the local bragging rights.

Spot the groundhopper!

Once the final whistle blew at Evans Park, it was a trip up the A34 to the city of Stoke-on-Trent for.....

3.00pm
NORTH WEST COUNTIES
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

HANLEY TOWN 4
LEEK CSOB 0

ATTENDANCE: 111

The covered terrace Hanley's Abbey Lane ground

Comfortable win for Hanley who are adapting well to life in their debut season at step 6, after being promoted from the Staffs County League. Two goals in each half bagged the points and Hanley also had the luxury of missing a penalty, amongst a host of other chances.

Theo Stair (20) gave the homesters the lead from penalty spot (pictured right) before missing a second spot kick. James Pointon (41) did make it 2-0 before the break.

Leek had a go, as you would expect, in the second period before were susceptible to the counter attack. They failed to breach the Hanley goal and eventually conceded to late goals as Danny Tainton (82) and Michael Morton (84) made certain of the points.

GREENFIELD FC (Mainetti Park)

WELSH ALLIANCE DIVISION TWO, GREENFIELD 4-1 BETHESDA ATHLETIC, ATTENDANCE: 16 (h/c)

With it being the Saturday before Christmas, I had no particular desire to travel so today, for a change, I kept it as local as I possibly could.

I opted for a jaunt along the A548 to Greenfield and their Welsh Alliance clash with Bethesda Athletic. I'm sure many readers of this blog did this very basic ground on the 'Hop' back in August (click here).

Despite the heavy rain that had been battering North Wales over the previous days, there was no danger of the game being off and the pitch was in great nick (luckily the next lot of rain held off until well after the final whistle). 

This current incarnation of Greenfield was formed in 2005 but for many years the name of Greenfield was synonymous with Courtaulds, the textile company, it's factory being a massive local employer back in the day.

Courtaulds Greenfield played at fairly senior level of north Wales football, most notably in the late 1970's and early 1980's, the works side winning the Welsh League (North) title in 1981/82 (this league was the forerunner to the Welsh Alliance) and also enjoying a run to the quarter-finals of the Welsh Cup, losing 2-1 to Hereford United.

The works, and with it the football club, disappeared in the mid 1980's. The reformed club have also enjoyed recent success winning the Clwyd League Division 1 in 2008 before joining the Welsh alliance Division 2 in 2010.

The current home is on the site of the old Courtaulds pitch and is known as Mainetti Park, after the adjacent factory which dominates the ground.

The game, in the end, was a comfortable win for the homesters with two goals in each half. Tom Carney opened the scoring after 13 minutes with a 25 yard screamer into the top corner. Nathan Roberts (16) quickly levelled for Bethesda when he was unmarked to tap in at the far post.

Terry Jones (27) restored Greenfield's lead with a nice turn and shot, low into the bottom corner and Greenfield went into the break with the lead.

Two minutes after the restart, Greenfield went further ahead when Adam Price's lob over the advancing 'keeper came back off crossbar and hit the covering defender for an unlucky own goal.

3-1 soon became 4-1 as Tom Carney (58) grabbed his second of the game when he was played in and dinked the ball over the 'keeper. Within 2 minutes Greenfield were down to 10 men when Tom Hogan picked up his second yellow card.

Greenfield were put under real pressure after the red card, Bethesda had 4 great chances and also hit the crossbar but it wasn't to be and Greenfield were eventually able to see the game out for a deserved three points.

and when a train goes by it's such a sad sound....

ABERDARE TOWN (Aberaman Park)

FAW WELSH CUP 3rd ROUND, ABERDARE TOWN 4-2 PRESTATYN TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 120 (est)

A trip to the Cynon Valley today as Welsh Cup holders Prestatyn Town began their defence of the trophy at Aberaman Park, the home of Aberdare Town. 

This had 'potential banana skin' written all over it as Welsh Premier League Prestatyn headed south to take on their Welsh League Division One opponents.

Founded in 1892, Aberdare Town were previously known as Aberaman Athletic before the changing their name to Aberdare Town in 2012. Aberaman Athletic had won the Welsh League as recently as 2009, but were denied promotion on ground criteria.

It was an eventful game as the cup holders crashed out and finished the game with eight men. 

Prestatyn were down to ten men after 7 minutes when Sean Hessey was deemed to be last man and was given a straight red before Chris Miethke gave the homesters the lead after 29 minutes. 

On 33 minutes Lee Hunt received his second yellow card and just before half time Miethke netted his second to give Aberdare a 2-0 interval lead. 

This was soon 3-0 after the restart when Sam Small broke clear to score before Mike Parker deflected home a Jack Lewis shot to reduce the arrears on 55 minutes, to give the seasiders hope. That hope was quickly extinguished when David Hayes was given a straight red for foul and abusive language. 

Sam Danby made it 4-1 with 12 minutes remaining before Andy Parkinson got a second for Prestatyn after 85 minutes. 

Obviously the sending offs had a huge impact on the result and it is a case of 'what if?' for Prestatyn, but take nothing away from Aberdare they had a right go and unsettled Prestatyn from the off,  playing some decent attacking football. Their two wingers caused problems to the Prestatyn defence throughout the game. Aberdare will now be at home to Bodedern Athletic in round 4. 

Pre-match was spent in the Red Cow in Llwydcoed where two Gower Ales 'Sampson's Jack' and 'Gower Gold' were on offer. A top day out in South Wales.

Match highlights can be found on this link here