After a Sunday's rest and recuperation it was time to squeeze in the last two games of the weekend. Nottingham was the destination for the day with a 3pm kick off seeing Hucknall Town play host to the Pilgrims. Preceeding this, however, there was time to fit in a trip to Selhurst Street to watch Radford take on Gedling Town in the East Midlands Counties League. The kick off of this game had been brought forward so that ground hoppers could take advantage and provide a boost to the 60 odd average attendance.
Radford FC vs Gedling Town
Selhurst Street can be found by taking the tram out of Nottingham and alighting at Noel Street, a quick walk through ASDA later and you find yourself at the turnstile. Four quid gets you in the ground and another pound gets you a programme. A quick mention for the programme here, it's one of the best I have seen from a non-league team and it puts a lot of higher level efforts to shame. Plenty of information, stats and commentary can be found inside.
The club house was warm and inviting due not so much the décor as the people. Whilst sat having a pint a couple of people came over to have a chat and were very knowledgeable, welcoming and friendly. Kick off soon approached and reluctantly the supporters left the warm bar for the distinctly chilly, fresh air. Plastic glasses lessened the blow to some extent, enabling those brave/foolish enough to take their hands out of their pockets to consume of several pints of crap larger on the 'terraces'. The 'terraces' consist of a small covered stand down the far side of the pitch with hard standing along the dugout side and behind one goal. Behind the other goal is the clubhouse and a seated area.
The teams emerge from the tunnel.
Radford are second bottom and have conceded over 100 goals, ten of them to Gedling Town in the last meeting and they make an awful start to the first half, falling behind on 11 minutes after some shocking defending. Gedling looked to have messed the lead up when a penalty was awarded to Radford by the seemingly eleven year old ref. Things rarely run for you when you're in Radford's position though and they duly proceeded to stuff it up with a tame effort down the middle. This was all the motivation Gedling needed to go and get a second. Nothing Radford could do about this one as a great header powered to the back of the net near the half hour mark. Gedling continued to pressure but couldn't break through before half time.
Half time was welcomed by everyone, not least because it provided the opportunity to go back into the warm! Inevitably the snack bar was the next calling point. Stock issues prevailed and whilst a sausage bap is nice it's no real replacement for a burger. The portion sizes on the chips were a bit slapdash as well, the only thing you can say is the food was fresh (well, freshly defrosted), tasty and prepared while you wait. Consequently the second half was well under-way by the time I started paying attention again.
The Gedling Town left back takes a throw in.
Some brilliant moments broke the mediocrity of the second half. The ball, having been hoofed out of the ground for a corner, needed replacing as often happens at non-league grounds. This is the first time I have ever seen the replacement ball get thrown towards the corner flag, bounce once and follow it's predecessor out of the ground though! On the subject of firsts, it's also the first time I have seen a player done by a tree! One side of the ground backs on to a school yard. Every so often the ball would go over the fence and one of the subs would have to retrieve it. This was all well and good until one of the subs, being clever, tried to belt the ball back into the ground. Cue an interception by a school-yard tree worthy of any Premier league defender.
The football was fairly similar to the first half. Radford would defend shockingly, fluke it then tan the ball up the pitch straight back to Gedling. Another goal was clearly coming. It arrived 15 minutes from the end thanks to more woeful defending and some dire goal keeping. 3-0 it finished, it clearly could've been more and it's fairly obvious why Radford are where they are. Despite this it's a thoroughly recommended day out. The football was fairly entertaining, punctuated by brilliant comedy moments but there was no time to reflect as Watnall Road was beckoning...
Hucknall Town vs Boston United
It's a trying walk from the tram terminus on one side of Hucknall to Watnall Road on the other, not just because it's a long way but also because of the risk to life and limb. Hucknall seems to be a place inhabited by those not quite classy enough to live in Nottingham (yes you did just read that right). At least that's the impression I got from the walk to and from the ground past the numerous closed take-aways. Still, it's not the worst place I've been by a long shot.
Watnall Road, home of Hucknall Town FC.
Once I actually got to the ground I was pleasantly surprised. Some nice stands surrounded the pitch on a couple of sides with a reasonable open terrace behind the far goal. The attendance was 501, 80% of those must've been Boston, 20% of which seemed to be in the snack bar queue! One poorly stocked snack bar was never going to be a good idea and a lot of Boston fans waited in line for 45 minutes to be told that chips and burgers had sold out. Not good enough Hucknall! What did you expect? The programme was poor as well. 28 pages, mostly adverts and twice the price of the Radford offering. Anyway, on to the football.
With one eye on the important Bradford PA vs Guiseley score the Boston fans camped out behind the goal which the Pilgrims were attacking and proceeded to make a large amount of noise to encourage the team. It must've worked as Marc (Jesus) Newsham tapped in on 13 minutes. It seemed to be a fairly easy game for Boston, rarely getting out of first gear. Hucknall did threaten occasionally but nothing to really worry Tom Evans. The only worry for Boston in the first half was the lack of goals to show for the dominance. 1-0 Boston at half time.
The view from behind the goal.
A pint later and it was time for the second half. The Pilgrims supporters spread out in the second half but still clearly out numbered the home fans. I'm not sure how much of a help this level of support is to the players but it certainly can't hurt. Boston flew out of the blocks and were soon two up with another Jesus tap in. Judging by the efforts to save it, Dan Haystead in the Hucknall goal must've been scared of hurting himself diving in the sandpit of a penalty box. There was so much sand in fact that the Pilgrims fans were beginning to wish they'd brought their deck chairs.
The sandpit.
Hucknall had a goal ruled off-side but this just galvanised the away team. Boston racked up the chances and Davidson eventually took advantage by banging in a Semple cross. Boston ran Hucknall absolutely ragged and should've had more but for Jesus' inability to score a hat-trick. Hucknall did eventually manage to strike back through Hawes but it was only a consolation as a few minutes later Weir-Daley braved the sandstorm to belt in a rebounding Sleath effort making it 4-1.
A 4-1 win away from home is a cracking result whoever the opponents are. Sadly Guiseley beat BPA 2-1 on the Saturday then followed it up with a 4-2 win, again versus BPA, on the Wednesday to put them firmly in the title driving seat. Next Saturday's game between Boston and Guiseley is now massive for the Pilgrims to snatch second and gain home advantage in the play-offs.
