Loughborough Dynamo - Nanpantan Sports Ground

Loughborough Dynamo FC
Nanpantan Sports Ground
2 Watermead Lane
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 3TN

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Ground: 117
Date: Tuesday 7th September 2021
Loughborough Dynamo 6-1 Yaxley
Northern Premier League Division 1 Midlands
Attendance: 130 (official)

Loughborough Dynamo - History

Loughborough Dynamo were founded in 1955 by pupils from Loughborough Grammar School. The club took its name from Dynamo Moscow - who had recently visited England and played Wolverhampton Wanderers - and its colours from Wolverhampton Wanderers. After spending the first two years of their existence playing friendlies, the club joined Division 3 of the Loughborough Alliance League in 1957. The club won the title in the 1959/60 season to earn promotion to Division 2, before finishing as Division 2 runners-up the following season to earn promotion to Division 1.

After finishing as Division 1 runners-up in both the 1962/63 and 1963/64 seasons, the club won the title in the 1964/65 season to earn promotion to Division 2 of the Leicester & District League. The club won back-to-back promotions to reach the Premier Division, were relegated in their first season at that level and then immediately bounced back by winning the title in the 1969/70 season. After this, the club transferred to the East Midlands Regional League and then the Central Alliance League in consecutive seasons before finishing bottom of the Premier Division and returning to Division 2 of the Leicester & District League.

The club spent the 1980s climbing back up the Leicester & District League before transferring to Division 1 of the Leicestershire Senior League for the 1989/90 season. After twelve seasons at this level, the club won the title in the 2001/02 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. Two seasons later, they won the Premier Division title and were promoted to the Midland Alliance League.

In each of their four seasons at this level, the club bettered their previous finish and this culminated in a runners-up finish in the 2007/08 season. This was enough to earn promotion to Division 1 South of the Northern Premier League. Though the division has changed name a few times, this is where the club have remained ever since, twice recording a highest finish of 8th-place (in the 2011/12 and 2018/19 seasons).

In the FA Cup, the club have progressed as far as the 2nd Qualifying Round on several occasions, most recently in the 2019/20 season when they beat Sherwood Colliery and Heather St John's before losing to Tamworth. The club's best FA Trophy run saw them reach the 3rd Qualifying Round last season, beating Bury Town before losing to Bedford Town. As for the FA Vase, the club progressed as far as the 2nd Round in the 2004/05 season, beating Romulus, Downes Sports and Harrowby United before losing to Leamington in a replay.

My Visit

When Yaxley's fixtures for the current season were first released in the summer, this was one that had caught my eye by virtue of being a rare match on my birthday. However, my initial verdict was that it would be too far for me to get a lift to in midweek and so I ruled it out. However, in spending a lot of my time in the past couple of weeks trying to figure out my groundhopping plans for both this month and October, my mind drifted back to this fixture as a potential option.

Midway through last week, I decided to put out a Tweet in what I thought was the vain hope of getting a lift to this match (as I knew it was too far to ask for a lift from my parents in midweek). By the time Saturday rolled around, I had received no replies and so I deleted the Tweet, thinking that I wasn't going to be able to get a lift. In truth, I was okay with that possibility, as I was only really interested in it all because of it being on my birthday and I had other plans for the month in the works anyway.

However, while I was out at Costa Coffee on Monday afternoon, I received a text from club secretary Chris Howard saying that he had put me on the list of Yaxley FC's complimentary guests for this fixture, confirming in another text that he was offering me a lift to and from the match. With that sorted, I started on my research for this blog entry when I got back before settling into my usual evening routine.

On the morning of my birthday, I had intended to spend the day working on the matchday programme for Yaxley's home fixture on Saturday, but I wasn't able to get much of anything done as we were without power (and, by extension, internet) for most of the day. While my laptop battery still had charge, I instead played video games to pass the time and then did some reading after my laptop ran out of charge. At around 4:30pm, I started to get all my stuff together ready to leave, settled down with a little more reading and then left the house just after 5pm.

As I was to be picked up at the Tesco Garage at around 5:30pm, I left as early as I did so as to allow myself to head into Serpentine Green and pick up a few things. This saw me once again heading to Poundland and buying two bags of Vimto Fizzy Pencils (one for during the match and one for later in the week) and two cold drinks to help stave off the heat. I was able to get this done and reach the garage by 5:30pm, where I had to wait ten minutes to be picked up by Chris, with fellow Yaxley fans Mark and Steven in tow.

From there, it was a surprisingly long drive up to Loughborough, with us eventually arriving just after 7pm. We walked over to the turnstile, got in for free and then some of us headed into the boardroom for pre-match hospitality. I had a cup of tea, but left the boardroom shortly after it was ready to get my circuit of photos before the sun went down (my photos still aren't as good as normal because of the low light, but they're better than they could have been).

After that was done, I went back into the boardroom to finish my cup of tea before kick-off, then headed out and stood on the dugout side of the ground during the first half. Before half-time, I went into the clubhouse to order a sausage and chips for £2.50, not realising that those were also going to be on offer in the boardroom at half-time. As a result of that, I ended up eating three sausages and a large portion of chips throughout the match. For the second half, I stood on the far side towards the goal Yaxley were shooting at.

After a dominant start, it only took 13 minutes for Loughborough Dynamo to take the lead as the Yaxley defence failed to fully clear from a long throw and Ryan Nesbitt placed a low shot beyond Aaron Butcher. Loughborough had their second thirteen minutes later when Tristan Matthews was allowed to tap in at the far post after the winger on the right side ran unchallenged. It was then 3-0 on the half-hour mark after Matthews latched onto a misplaced pass in midfield, ran on goal and shot across Butcher into the bottom corner.

Any hopes of a better second half performance from the Cuckoos were crushed after two minutes when John-Paul Duncliffe underhit a pass to Butcher, allowing Matthews to pick up the loose ball and round Butcher to complete his hat-trick. It took another twenty minutes before the fifth goal came, as Loughborough eased off for a while. When that fifth goal came in the 68th minute, it started from Yaxley losing the ball in midfield from a throw-in, with Alex Steadman running on goal unchallenged and having an easy finish.

It became 6-0 in the 85th minute when Daniel Collins curled a shot in from just inside the box. It arguably should have been 7-0 moments later as a Loughborough header looked to bounce beyond the goal line an in, but the goal wasn't given. Yaxley carved out a few half-chances late on before Pierre Omombe-Epoyo was brought down just inside the box to earn a penalty in the 91st minute. In his 300th appearance for the club, Liam Hook stepped up to take and scored with the assistance of the crossbar.

Well, that was nothing short of an absolute disaster, comfortably the worst Yaxley performance I've seen since another 6-1 drubbing away at Kidlington. I could go on and on about how bad the performance was, but I think the best way to sum it up is this: if this non-performance is any indication, we will do remarkably well to not be one of the four worst teams in the division come the end of the season. However, credit has to be given where it is due: Loughborough Dynamo were by far the better side and comfortably deserved their win.

At full-time, we made an immediate exit and started the journey back, all the while discussing that performance and its implications for the season ahead and further beyond. Eventually, I was dropped off at the top of my street just before 11pm, making it back into the house a few minutes later. Before I went to bed, I sorted out my photos and wound down with some YouTube videos to bring a disappointing birthday to an end. I then didn't get started on this entry until 4pm, as my priority was to sort out the Yaxley programme for Saturday after not being able to do so yesterday.

After this, I no longer feel any guilt in skipping Saturday's home match to fit in another groundhop, so I will be heading to Atherstone Town in the FA Vase 1st Qualifying Round. The following weekend will then see me head into London to visit Hanwell Town in the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round, as they are my current team in our family FA Cup competition. As for my plans to go somewhere much further afield, I've put that on hold until October now as a result of this (as I had originally been planning to head into London mid-October after going somewhere further afield in a couple of weeks).

The Ground

Nanpantan Sports Ground is probably one of the more basic grounds at Step 4. The only seated stand is positioned behind the near goal atop a grass bank and contains 100-150 seats. Behind these seats is the clubhouse, which is where you have to go to order any food and drink at the ground. The only other area of cover at the ground is an area of covered standing on the far side which probably provides standing cover for a similar amount of people.

Besides some steps of uncovered terracing on the dugout side of the ground, the rest of the ground is open hard standing. There are portakabins dotted throughout the ground containing additional facilities such as the boardroom. Everything is in the club's colours, which does add some character to the ground. The ground has an overall capacity of 1,500.

Photos