MEXBOROUGH SPORTS CLUB (Hampden Road)

MONTAGU HOSPITAL CHARITY CUP FINAL 2021, JOKER FC 1-2 SWINTON ATHLETIC, ATTENDANCE: 511

On a roasting hot Bank Holiday Monday, I once again headed to Yorkshire for my football fix.

The Montagu Cup is an invitational competition for teams in and around the Mexborough area. It was created 124 years ago to raise funds for the local Montagu cottage hospital. The first winners in 1897 were Ecclesfield.

The final is traditionally held on Easter Monday but like most things in these Covid times, the competition has been delayed a few weeks.

Today's final was between Joker FC and Swinton Athletic. Swinton, of the the Sheffield and Hallamshire League, are one of the most successful teams in the history of this competition and hold the record of 7 wins, jointly, with Wombell Main and Mexborough Main. A win today would see them defend their title, after victory in 2020, and also claim the record outright.

Joker FC, who play in the Rotherham & District Sunday League Premier Division, were looking to win the trophy for the second time in three years, after beating Wombwell Main 6-0 back in 2019. It promised to be a decent encounter.

The game, as is traditional, took place at Hampden Road in Mexborough. There have been three football clubs to originate from Mexborough, the last of which, Mexborough Town, folded in 1993. The ground is shared with the cricket club and has a large seated stand on one side. In recent years Swinton Athletic have been using it as their home ground as it meets ground grading criteria. The other sides of the ground are made up of large banks of terracing.

I was speaking to other groundhoppers at the game and they were telling me that Swinton may be going back to their traditional home next season so the ground could be laying dormant next season, which would be such a shame for a superb set up.

Clearly I wasn't the only one anticipating a good game today and there was a tremendous 500+ crowd in attendance. The game was a tight affair. Joker were the marginally better team in the first half but their play in the final third let them down.

As the game wore on Swinton began to look dangerous and once they took the lead through a Matt Thornton header (60) there was likely to be only one winner. Two minutes later Thornton doubled Swinton's advantage with a superb chip and finish over the advancing goalkeeper before Joker got a consolation goal through Joseph Austin with virtually the last kick of the match.

Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUYcj-WHCX8

There is a blue plaque on the clubhouse wall at Mexborough

paying tribute to Eric Brook, who was Manchester City's record

goalscorer until 2017, when he was overtaken by Sergio Aguero.

ODSAL STADIUM (Bradford)

RUGBY FOOTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP, BRADFORD BULLS 37-18 YORK CITY KNIGHTS, ATTENDANCE: c4,000

This blog is exclusively about football and football grounds but when you visit a ground as iconic as the Odsal Stadium, well sometimes you have to make an exception!

After 20 months away, Bradford Bulls made their return to the Odsal Stadium today. The reasons for leaving are well documented but to cut a long story short the club entered administration in 2012 and was eventually liquidated in 2017. In 2019 it was announced that the cost of rates, rent and maintenance were prohibitive and the Bulls departed for Dewsbury. 

Odsal has been in the Rugby Football League's hands since they bought it from the club in 2012 and a few weeks ago it was announced that an 18 month deal had been struck for the Bulls to return. The ground had been Bradford's home since 1934 and, with its vast banks of terracing you can almost feel yourself stepping back in time. It has the feel of ground from a different era and that, in my opinion, is no bad thing in these days of modern indentikit stadiums.

As a result of Covid-19 restrictions the capacity was limited to 4,000 supporters this afternoon, a far cry from May 1954 when a record crowd of 102,569 packed the ground to watch the Challenge Cup Final replay between Warrington and Halifax.

There is a football connection to the ground as Bradford City played their home games at the ground between September 1985 and December 1986. This was when Valley Parade was being re-built after the tragic fire in May 1985. The ground was also used for speedway, but the building of hospitality suites at the south end of stadium ended this association.

If you have never been to Odsal then, whatever your sporting persuasion, I would put it on your bucket list. It is simply a must visit ground!

Result!

Wear your mask when moving about!

WAKEFIELD AFC (Post Office Road, Featherstone RFLC)

YORKSHIRE CUP GROUP A, WAKEFIELD 0-2 BRIGHOUSE TOWN,
ATTENDANCE: 691

Well after a long, long wait I finally attended my first football back in an "elite" stadium. I had spent the past few Saturday's walking along public spaces to watch football thanks to the Government's bizarre rules on spectator sport. Hopefully that is now in the past and I can get back into the old routine.

Today's destination was West Yorkshire and the home of Featherstone Rugby League Club, Post Office Road, which is currently known as the Millennium Stadium for sponsorship purposes. The fledgling Wakefield AFC are currently playing their home games at this ground. An opportunity to see football at a rugby ground was not to be sniffed at! 

With the regular season curtailed once again, a tournament was created for clubs who wanted to play some game and local teams were invited to participate. Six put their names forward - Brighouse Town, Golcar United, Liversedge, Nostell Miners Welfare, Penistone Church and Wakefield.

I had been so looking forward to this game ever since this round-robin tournament was announced a few weeks back.  It was clear I wasn't the only one as there were loads of familiar faces in the crowd. According to the futbology app there were around 90 groundhoppers who checked in at the ground.

Wakefield were formed in 2019 to bring football to the largest city in the United Kingdom without a club. They are members of the Sheffield and Hallamshire County League, which sits at step 7 in the pyramid. Former Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United goalkeeper Chris Turner is part of the business consortium behind the scenes. The programme notes set the goals of the club which is to, ultimately, reach the Football League by 2033.

I had seen previously seen teams with Wakefield in their name play at Belle Vue (Wakefield-Emley) and College Grove (Wakefield FC) but these clubs are no longer in existence, so it will be interesting to see how this latest Wakefield team progresses.

The stand at the Station Road of the ground were previously

situated at Scarborough's (now demolished) McCain Stadium ground

Brighouse Town, who play at step 4 Northern Premier League North West, were the visitors this afternoon and the gulf between the sides was there to see.

Jack Boyle burst through after 5 minutes and planted his shot into the top corner to give Brighouse the lead. Wakefield huffed and puffed but were mainly reduced to long range efforts. The rugby goals were still in situ and maybe there would've have been points on the board for the homesters if some of the efforts between those sticks counted!

Just before half time Wakefield missed a glorious chance to equalise when, clear through on goal, Harley Blankley put his shot over the bar. Almost immediately Zeph Thomas had the freedom of the pitch to race clear and shoot low into the goal to make it 2-0 to Brighouse. That was effectively game over.

The second half was a bit of a non-event, Wakefield did create a few half chances, and it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had one gone in, but Brighouse were able to close the game out and, in the end, were comfortable winners.

Prior to kick off there was a minutes silence to reflect and remember those lost in the pandemic over the past 12 months but unfortunately this was interrupted by the travelling fair on the car park blasting out loud music. The only thing missing was Ray Von screaming "Shabba" as the rides spun around!

Post match was spent having a beer and a catch up in Castleford with a few other people who I had not seen in months. It was good to have a little bit of normality again, if it was only for a few hours. Long may it continue.