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.