A lot of my friends are proper hoppers and like to travel far and wide to get games in, but I'm not much of a traveller and only clocked up around 35 miles over the past weekend, but took in four games! The weather forecast was ok for Saturday, so in the morning l headed off to Arnold Town's Eagle Valley, to see their U18 play Beeston FC U18 on an outside pitch, with a 10:30am ko. Arrived at 10:15am, and as is usual nowadays at the Valley, there were several games already underway, and a few waiting to begin. The car park was packed, but although we’ve had a lot of rain locally, the overflow car park down the side of the pitch was put to good use, as the picture shows.
The teams play in the Notts Senior League U18 Saturday league and put in a cracking display of attacking football. The home team went ahead on the stroke of half-time, Kirin Paterson heading home. It wasn’t until the 87th minute that the home team netted again, this time Harry Warwick was played through on goal and rolled the ball past the visiting keeper with some ease. F-T 2-0. The win sees Arnold joint top of the table with Chesterfield Town.
Saturday afternoon saw me and the daftlad at our spiritual home – Greenwich Avenue. Basford Utd were hosting Gainsborough Trinity in a Northern Premier League premier division fixture, and this turned out to be a cracker of a game, albeit a bit “squeaky-bum” towards the end!
There are full match reports on-line, so no need for me to go into too much detail. We watched the game with Dave Orwin, our Burnley loving pal, and Basford’s Neil McGowan. What a game we and the 290 others watching were treated too! Brad Gascoigne opened the scoring on 20. At a set-piece, the giant Basford defender was left completely unmarked at the far post and he had the simple task of heading the ball home. Kane Richards headed home to double the home teams lead on the half-hour, and in doing so, lost his gold tooth! Luckily after a quick search, he found and re-attached the offending article! H-T 2-0
Good friend Paul McFarland joined us during the break – he’d been to the 2pm ko game between Awsworth Villa and Woodthorpe Park Rangers. That game finished 2-2 and although he missed the first half at Basford, he was treated to five more goals! Journeyman Ross Hannah reduced the Trinity arrears on 58 to give the visitors some hope, but 60 seconds later, Richards was on hand to clip the ball home after some neat work from James Reid and Nat Watson. Courey Grantham went successfully on-on-one with the Trinity keeper on 72 to make it 4-1 and points secured (or so we thought)! Trinity's Myron Gibbons pulled one back with three minutes later, then Simon Russell added the visitors’ third on 82 to cause the home fans concern – thankfully Basford held on to secure all three points and now sit equal second in the league table. F-T 4-3
Sunday morning – back at Basford for a Notts Sunday League premier division game with a 10:30am kick-off. FC Basford Utd entertained Queen Adelaide FC and as it transpired, it was the handful of spectators who were “entertained”! Arrived at the ground to find the car park rammed – all the outside pitches were in use! FC have use of the 3G at Greenwich Avenue, so there was no doubt of the game not going ahead. There were a few games off locally, but not too many.
Liam Honeyman put the home team in front with just four minutes played – a superb effort from the corner of the box beating QA keeper Curtis McDonald all ends up. United added another on 27 (scorer unknown) and Honeyman bagged his second with 40 played. QA pulled one back seconds later, giving us a half-time score of 3-1. Thoughts of a runaway victory were dispelled somewhat on 62 when QA netted again. Lyam Webster was on the mark for United two minutes later to restore the his teams two goal margin, and when Referee Mr Swinscoe awarded them a penalty soon after, it looked to be all over. However McDonald saved the Jimmy Hassall spot-kick, and that save was to prove crucial as the game progressed.
A few minutes after the penalty save, one of the QA players made an unsavoury remark to the ref and was shown a yellow card and asked to go and sit on the naughty step. The player immediately called the ref a c*** and instead of sitting on the naughty step for 10 minutes, he was given a straight red! Little did it matter, as it happens. The visitors, although down to 10 men, netted in the 75th and 76th minutes to claim an unlikely share of the points! F-T 4-4
So, after a quick nip home for some food, it was back to Greenwich Avenue again, this time to see an East Midlands Vets league game. Basford Utd v Hucknall Plough looked tasty on paper - and a glance at both team's very experienced squads, you could tell that this was never going to be a dull 0-0!
Damien Rennicks stabbed home for Basford from close range with 19 on the clock, but despite relentless pressure, the home team failed to add to their lead. With five minutes of the half remaining, Mark Nangle found space at the far stick and nodded home for Hucknall to level the score. H-T 1-1
Jonathan Bradshaw gave the visitors the lead twelve minutes into the second period, then Andy Start made it 1-3 ten minutes later. The stars on show were giving the spectators a real footballing show, and Basford reduced their arrears in the 69th minute when Gary Sucharewycz (AKA Scrabble) fired home to make it 2-3. The Plough lead was back to two goals within seconds of the restart though – a goal credited to Aaron Potter, but in reality, was a superb 18-yard header from a Basford defender that flew past a static Scott Miles in the home goal. Rennicks had the final say as far as the goals went, grabbing his second in the final minute, but it was too little, too late and the visitors headed back to Hucknall with all three points. F-T 3-4
So – four great games, lots of goals, more cash to Danielle’s Flutterbyes, and a vow from yours truly to take in more veterans footie – I loved every minute!
