Ground: 128
Date: Saturday 8th January 2022
Radford 4-0 Bourne Town
United Counties League Division 1
Attendance: 64 (official)
Radford - History
Radford were founded in 1964 as Manlove & Alliots, a Sunday League side for Manlove, Alliot & Co. Ltd. Six years later, they changed their name to Radford Olympic and in 1977 they became the first amateur club in Britain to wear sponsorship on their shirts. In 1979, the club moved into Saturday football by joining the Central Alliance League, before moving to the East Midlands Regional League after one season.
After winning the Division 1 title in 1983, the club joined the newly-formed Central Midlands League and won its inaugural Senior Cup, before finishing as runners-up in the league the following season. In 1987, the club dropped Olympic from their name to become Radford FC (though they have maintained the Olympic rings on their badge).
The renamed club continued to play in the Central Midlands League for the next two decades, finishing 3rd in the Premier Division in the 2002/03 season to earn promotion to the Supreme Division. The 2008/09 season saw the club become founder members of the East Midlands Counties League and they remained there until being laterally transferred to Division 1 of the United Counties League when the EMCL was disbanded at the end of the 2020/21 season due to restructuring of the non-league pyramid.
The club's highest league finish came in the 2015/16 season when they finished as runners-up in the East Midlands Counties League behind St. Andrews. Initially, they were promoted to the Midland League Premier Division due to St. Andrews failing a ground grading inspection, but this decision was reversed when the Leicestershire club successfully appealed.
The club have so far competed in the FA Cup seven times, but their only win in the competition came in the 2015/16 season when they beat Sleaford Town 3-2 in the Extra Preliminary Round before losing 1-2 to Spalding United in the Preliminary Round. However, they have had a few decent runs in the FA Vase, including last season when they reached the 3rd Round for the first time by beating Clipstone, Ollerton Town, Paget Rangers and Bewdley Town before losing to Westfields.
My Visit
For my first groundhop of 2022, I was unsure of what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I initially considered getting a groundhop in on Bank Holiday Monday to get started while also allowing me to attend Yaxley's home match yesterday, but with few options available on that front I instead opted to miss that Yaxley match and get a groundhop in yesterday.
When I was first flicking through the Futbology app for options, I noticed that there were lots available in the Leicester area. Being able to get to Leicester station direct from Peterborough made that an appealing option, but unfortunately I noticed that Leicester City were also at home in the FA Cup: trying to navigate busy trains full of both Leicester and Watford fans wasn't the most appealing prospect, so I scrapped that idea.
Beyond the Leicester area, I also noticed that there were a good amount of options in and around the Nottingham area and looking on the National Rail Journey Planner during the week suggested that trains were generally running from Peterborough to Nottingham with few problems. On top of that, neither Forest nor Notts County were scheduled to be at home so it was an appealing prospect.
In the end, I had finalised my decision to head into Nottingham by Thursday, but I wasn't sure which of my four options I wanted to go. In the end, I opted for this as it was a short walk from the ground to the tram stop and vice-versa and because taking the tram would allow me to reroute to my 3G back-up at Basford United's ground at the last minute if required.
My train left Peterborough station yesterday at around 12:30pm, five minutes or so later than intended. It was supposed to take just over an hour to get to Nottingham, but we ended up stopping for fifteen or so minutes not long after leaving Peterborough station. Thankfully, even with this setback I arrived in Nottingham before 2pm, just as the sun was coming out (with it having been raining all the way to Nottingham) and I hopped on the tram heading towards Noel Street.
When I got off at Noel Street, I knew the ground was only five minutes away but it wasn't as easy to find as I thought it would be. Either way, I made it to the ground by around 2:20pm, paying £5 for admission, £1 for a programme and £1 for a raffle ticket before doing my circuit of photos. Once that was done, I stopped at the tea bar and paid £3.50 for a sausage cob and chips, taking a seat in the main stand behind the goal while eating that and doing my usual pre-match social media posts.
For the first twenty or so minutes of the match, I stood in one of the covered shelters on the dugout side of the ground and was speaking to a pleasant elderly man with a thick accent who had been involved at Basford United for several years as they rose up the pyramid, as well as being involved in other local football throughout the Nottinghamshire area for years. Once he started chatting with someone else, I moved across to the covered shelter on the near side for the rest of the first half, before moving out of the cover and closer to the exit in the second half.
On paper, this looked likely to be a fairly one-sided contest, with Radford firmly in the promotion chase and Bourne Town struggling towards the wrong end of the table (albeit probably not in danger of finishing in the bottom three with that nine-point gap). That impression was only reinforced when the teamsheets came out on Twitter and I saw that Bourne only had two substitutes named on the bench.
Radford started on the front foot and almost took the lead 4 minutes into this match, Ryan Smith slicing a shot wide of the far post after being picked out by a Kevin Hemagou cross. After a period of concerted Radford pressure, Smith went close again in the 24th minute when he was set through on goal by a loose backpass, but Bourne keeper John Swales did well to block the shot before a defender cleared it for a corner. Four minutes later, Bourne almost took the lead when Martyn Fox volleyed over the crossbar after a long throw was headed clear.
In the 33rd minute, Radford's pressure finally paid off: Jevin Seaton had a curled shot from the edge of the box saved, but Hemagou was there to tap in the rebound. It was 2-0 ten minutes later when Solace Uyi-Olaye hit an excellent right-footed volley into the bottom corner. On the stroke of half-time, Radford had a shot from a corner blocked on the line, but they strongly appealed that it had crossed the line: from where I was standing, it looked as if it had crossed the line, but no goal was given.
Bourne made a better start to the second half, but almost found themselves 3-0 down in the 51st minute: a quick passing move ended with Hemagou having another shot well-saved by Swales. Five minutes later, Thomas Klinkovics almost pulled one back for the away side when he slid the ball across goal aiming for the far corner, but David Boafo blocked the shot on the line and sent it out for a corner. Any hopes of a Bourne comeback were extinguished in the 65th minute when Joe McLaughlin fired an aerial side-footed volley into the net from close range to make it 3-0 to Radford.
This took much of the spark out of the contest, but it reignited again in the 79th minute when Uyi-Olaye was brought down in the box and a penalty was given. Handbags ensued and the striker wanted to break rank and take the penalty himself, but was ordered away by his manager. Instead, Joe Meakin stepped up and had his penalty saved. Moments later, Uyi-Olaye was brought down by Swales to earn his side another penalty, but this time he was allowed to take it and scored to make it 4-0. Substitute Will Bailey almost made it 5-0 in the 87th minute with a powerful shot from outside the box, but Swales denied him with a fingertip save.
This match more or less followed the form book and my expectations as Radford simply had too much for Bourne and fairly easily swept them aside. In fact, even when they noticeably dropped their intensity for much of the second half, they never looked in danger of letting their lead slip despite a few decent chances falling Bourne's way (most notably from set-piece situations). Regardless, it was a decent match to round off an enjoyable first groundhop of 2022 at a club with a small but vocal following (including a drummer behind the goal).
As soon as the final whistle blew, I made my way out of the ground to head to Hyson Green Market tram stop. I had plenty of time, but I wanted to make absolutely sure I'd get back to Nottingham station in time for my train, otherwise I'd have to wait an hour for the next one. Thankfully, this didn't happen and the train left at around 5:30pm, making steady progress until we once again stopped just outside Peterborough for around fifteen minutes.
This meant I wasn't back in Peterborough until 6:50pm, getting back in the house ten minutes later. I sorted out my photos while waiting for dinner, then wrote up my match report after dinner, breaking it up into two halves with a shower.
I'll be groundhopping again next weekend, but I won't be heading into London as planned, nor will I be going to any match in the FA Vase or Trophy due to the potential of extra time and penalties. As such, I'm very much undecided on where to go and will be flicking through the Futbology app again in the coming days to help me make a decision.
The Ground
Selhurst Street, currently known as the Oakfield Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a great ground for Step 6 with plenty of character. Despite space being limited on all sides due to the proximity of houses and a primary school, there is cover on three out of four sides of the ground across five different areas of cover.
Curiously, the only seated cover at the ground is behind the near goal in one corner. This contains around 150 seats and views from the seats are decent. Next to this and directly behind the goal is a small covered area directly in front of the clubhouse, which is where the club's most vocal fans congregate.
There are two covered shelters on the dugout side of the ground, one either side of the dugouts and one directly next to the tea bar. A larger version of these is located on the near side of the ground and also contains a step of terracing. Together, these probably provide standing cover for around 200 people. The rest of the ground is open hard standing, but it's probably good enough for Step 5 in its current form, maybe Step 4 at a stretch.
Photos
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