Pinchbeck United - Glebe Field

Pinchbeck United FC
Glebe Field
Knight Street
Pinchbeck
Spalding
Lincolnshire
PE11 3RB

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Ground: 145
Date: Saturday 23rd July 2022
Pinchbeck United 6-2 Huntingdon Town
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 64

Pinchbeck United - History

Pinchbeck United were founded in 1935 and joined the Peterborough & District League in 1958. They won their first Premier Division title in 1990 and repeated the feat twelve months later. Their next title win came in the 2011/12 season, a season which also saw the club win the Peterborough Senior Cup. After finishing as Premier Division runners-up in the 2016/17 season, they moved into a groundshare with Spalding United to earn promotion to Division 1 of the United Counties League.

The club won the Division 1 title at the first attempt to earn promotion to the Premier Division, which is where they have remained ever since (moving into the North division when it split into Premier Divisions North and South). They finished an impressive 4th in their first season at Step 5, but finished second-from-bottom last season. Despite this, they were spared from relegation back to Step 6.

Since promotion from Step 7, the club have competed in the FA Vase five times and the FA Cup four times, but they are yet to win a game in either competition.

My Visit

Prior to fitting in a groundhop last week and prior to Yaxley's FA Cup draw, I had planned to groundhop both yesterday and next Saturday. I also had not planned to get a lift anywhere and was instead looking at options on the train, including a potential double as part of next weekend's UCL groundhop. However, after last week's groundhop and an eBay sale that I had to refund, my budget for the rest of the month was a little tighter and so a rethink was required. The news of yet more train strikes next week also added to my need to rethink by pretty much ruling out a groundhop next week.

With my budget restricted by an impending pre-order (it's releasing some point in August, but as I'm not sure which half of the month I have to be careful), trying to find options I could afford to do without stopping me from being able to afford Ipswich Wanderers in a few weeks was very tricky. I very quickly decided that I would have to ask for a lift somewhere, but having already done so once this month I was a little reluctant to do so again.

Regardless, after some extensive searching I found three options that I could potentially ask for a lift to: this, Wellingborough Whitworth and Crowland Town. From those three, it was honestly easy for me to decide which was my first choice, as Pinchbeck's first team only play at their traditional home during pre-season and I figured ticking it off for the first team would be more interesting than doing so for a Reserves game. By contrast, Whitworth and Crowland were playing at their usual home grounds and there would be many more opportunities to tick those off in future.

After enduring the truly oppressive heat of Monday and Tuesday's heatwave, I asked my mum about a lift to Pinchbeck and was pleasantly surprised that she was okay with it despite already having taken me to Cottesmore this month. With that being the case, I went to double-check Pinchbeck's Twitter to confirm that the game was still going ahead (as many clubs have had friendlies cancelled or changed this pre-season) and saw that it was going to be a 2pm kick-off. I then researched their history on Friday as usual so as to save some time yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning, I used the free time I had to play some Pokémon before we left the house at around 1pm. It took just over forty minutes to reach Pinchbeck and this meant I was dropped off with fifteen minutes to spare before kick-off. Just enough time to finish taking my photos and post on social media, at least, before finding somewhere to stand on the far side for the duration of the game. I was also tempted by the food they had on offer in the clubhouse as I heard glowing praise for it from several people. However, that was not an option as I was set to have a barbecue for dinner after the game.

Huntingdon were awarded a penalty within 48 seconds of kick-off after their 10 went on a run down the right wing and was carelessly brought down inside the box. 9 stepped up and opened the scoring for the away side. Pinchbeck came close to equalising eight minutes later when their 7 hit a free kick into the post, but Huntingdon doubled their lead in the 16th minute when their 11 took a free kick from 30 yards and overhit it enough to go over the keeper's head and in.

Pinchbeck pulled one back seven minutes later after some nice interplay on the right wing culminated in their 10 tapping in from a cross across the face of goal. It was 2-2 five minutes later as a shot from Pinchbeck's 9 was saved by the Huntingdon keeper, only to fall straight to 7 for a tap-in.

The turnaround was complete in the 44th minute as Pinchbeck scored their third after some fine work from their 11 on the left wing gave him space to cross to 7 for another tap-in. From the kick-off, the home side were quick to regain possession and made it 4-2 with a low shot from their 12.

The second half was never likely to live up to such an entertaining first half, but Pinchbeck kept going and scored their fifth in the 59th minute when their 10 charged down the right wing before shooting across the keeper and in. 10 then completed his hat-trick three minutes later after showing some great skill to bring an aerial ball down and turn past a defender before placing his shot in the bottom corner. The intensity quickly dropped off after this, but both sides had a few half-chances in the final twenty-five minutes.

This was probably the most entertaining game I've watched this pre-season, with Huntingdon making a fantastic start only for Pinchbeck to emphatically turn it around and claim a dominant 6-2 win. Pinchbeck were constantly able to exploit space on the wing and Huntingdon simply could not handle it. Best of luck to both teams for the season ahead.

The referee blew for full-time a minute early and I made my way out of the ground while posting my thoughts about the game on Twitter. As it turned out, my mum had just parked in the library car park nearby as I came out of the ground and this meant we were able to quickly start the journey home. As usual, I took the time to write up my match report and had more than enough time to get it done.

On the way back home, we stopped off at Tesco to pick up some rolls for the barbecue. This brief diversion meant it was nearly 5pm by the time we got home, giving me an hour to sort out my photos before we had our dinner.

And that was my last groundhop of both July and pre-season, as my next one will be in two weeks when Yaxley head to Ipswich Wanderers in the FA Cup. The outcome of that and the release date of my impending pre-order will then determine my plans for the rest of August as I get ever closer to having visited 150 grounds.

The Ground

Glebe Field is a standard Step 7 set-up which, by the look of it, has little prospect of being upgraded to meet Step 6 ground grading criteria. The pitch is roped off on two sides, with brick-built dugouts on the near side. These have seats next to them in the open, presumably from when social distancing restrictions were in place. Next to the corner flag closest to the clubhouse on this side is a corrugated iron shed, which I would presume is used to store pitch maintenance equipment.

The clubhouse is positioned behind the near goal and provides some cover in the form of a covered overhang, though this is some distance from the pitch. In front of this cover - which is where hot food and drinks can be bought - is some uncovered seating in the form of various benches. There is also a gazebo positioned in front of the clubhouse and there is some additional uncovered seating in front of this. A children's play area is also positioned next to the clubhouse.

The close proximity of residential properties means that there is little chance of the club being able to upgrade the ground to meet Step 6 and above ground grading criteria, forcing the first team to play their competitive games at Spalding United. However, they do play pre-season games here and their Reserves play competitive games here in Division 1 of the Peterborough & District League.

Photos

Southwell City - Centenary Sports Ground

Southwell City FC
Centenary Sports Ground
Fiskerton Road
Brinkley
Southwell
Nottinghamshire
NG25 0TP

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Ground: 144
Date: Saturday 16th July 2022
Southwell City 0-3 Staveley Miners Welfare
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 50

Southwell City - History

Southwell City were founded in 1893 and originally played on a ground in the shadow of Southwell Minister Cathedral. This is why they chose to call themselves "City" even though the market town of Southwell has never been granted city status. Records of the club's early history are sporadic at best, but it is known that they initially competed in the Newark & District League and won its Challenge Cup in 1911.

In 1957, the club joined the Nottinghamshire Alliance League and spent almost fifty years here before joining the Central Midlands League in 2003. In that time, they dropped into its Division 1 at some point before returning to the Senior Division after a runners-up finish in the 1994/95 season. They then finished as Senior Division runners-up in the 1998/99 season before winning the title two seasons later. They finished as runners-up in the following season and then finished 3rd in the 2002/03 season before moving to the Central Midlands League.

Their first season in the Central Midlands League saw the club finish as Premier Division runners-up to earn promotion to the Supreme Division. This was where they remained until the Supreme Division was split into North and South Divisions for the 2011/12 season, at which point they were placed in the South Division.

After six years in this division, the club opted to move over to the Nottinghamshire Senior League for the 2017/18 season, remaining here until they won the Premier Division title in the 2021/22 season to earn promotion to Step 6 for the first time. The 2022/23 season will see the club play in Division 1 of the United Counties League and will be their first full season in their new ground after moving midway through the 2021/22 season.

My Visit

Originally, I had no plans to be groundhopping this weekend as I expected we would be going out for a meal in the evening to celebrate my mum's birthday. Plus, with Yaxley playing at home on Friday night, I thought that would satisfy my football fix for the week and leave me to groundhop on each of the next two Saturdays. However, with Yaxley set to visit Ipswich Wanderers in the FA Cup on the first Saturday of August, I figured I would have to rethink for budget reasons.

While asking my mum for a lift to and from that Yaxley game on Friday, I also asked about if there were any plans in place for a meal out yesterday and found out that nothing had been decided on at that point. With that being the case, I figured that I could look for early kick-offs on the Saturday, so as to allow me to get a game in and get back early enough to not disrupt any potential plans for an evening meal.

After searching for options on Futbology and then cross-referencing with Twitter to ensure that the listed matches were actually going ahead (as pre-season matches are constantly changing at short notice this season), two options stood out from the rest: this (a 1pm kick-off) and St Albans City (initially a 2pm kick-off, but changed to 1pm on Thursday). Being a Step 2 ground, St Albans was my initial preference, but it was more expensive and would also likely be stricter on stuff like taking photos or bringing drinks in and I was not really in the mood for inconveniences like that.

So this pushed Southwell up to first choice, but there were also a few issues with this option: firstly, the fact that they had just been promoted to Step 6 meant that their ground would in all likelihood be a work-in-progress (I usually prefer to wait a while before visiting newly-promoted Step 6 teams for this reason); second, and the more important of the two, was the fact that the first train I could get back from the nearby Fiskerton train station would leave an hour and a half after full-time. However, there was an easy solution to that latter issue which made my decision easy: I could just stick around in the bar after the game for a while before heading back to the station.

Before I ordered my train tickets, I double-checked with my mum if there were any other plans for Saturday and, with that still not yet being the case, I told her my plans and then ordered my train tickets on Friday for around £14. After doing a job interview in the morning and then getting those tickets sorted, I researched Southwell's history in the afternoon before packing my bag in preparation for an early Saturday start (as I would have to leave the house before 10am to get to the train station).

Yesterday morning, my train left Peterborough at around 10:20am and arrived in Newark Northgate around twenty-five minutes later. From there, I had to walk across town to Newark Castle station and then wait half an hour for the train to Fiskerton. As I walked between the two stations and past the castle, I took a mental note to visit the castle next time I find myself in the area and to visit some pubs as well (sadly, the main one that caught my eye - the Vaults - seems to be closed down).

It took just short of ten minutes to reach Fiskerton from Newark Castle station and I was immediately surprised by just how rural a location it appeared to be. The limitations of my research were further exposed when, upon leaving the station, I was surprised to find that there was no footpath along the road to the ground at all. This called for a cautious approach as I headed towards the ground, but as it was only a half-mile away it only ended up taking fifteen minutes.

This saw me arrive at the ground at midday and I went straight onto my circuit of photos before heading into the bar to get out of the sun and get a can of Kopparberg. I also ordered a Pukka Pie, but had to wait until just before kick-off for that to be ready (as it needed time to be warmed up). While waiting for that and kick-off, I sat in the bar watching coverage of the Women's Euros matches from Friday night (I thought it was live, having not been keeping up with the tournament at all).

Just before kick-off, my pie was ready and I also bought a pin badge when I went up to the bar to collect it. I then headed outside to the benches in front of the clubhouse to eat my pie and apply some suntan lotion to avoid getting sunburnt again; the only cover at the ground was closed off to spectators for whatever reason, so I would be directly exposed to the sun for the full 90 minutes. I moved along to the side of the pitch once I finished eating, before heading back into the bar at half-time to get out of the sun for a bit and order an ice cream. I then reapplied some suntan lotion at the start of the second half, just to make absolutely sure I wouldn't get burnt.

After weathering a strong start from Staveley, Southwell had an excellent chance to take the lead in the 34th minute when a free kick from deep was headed onto the crossbar. However, it was Staveley who took the lead on the stroke of half-time, their 11 tapping into an empty net after the Southwell keeper came out for the ball and missed it.

It took until the 72nd minute for the away side to double their lead: their 17 turned onto a loose ball in midfield before hitting a perfect shot over the keeper and in from 25 yards out. It was then 0-3 ten minutes later as Staveley capitalised on Southwell cheaply conceding possession by setting their 11 free in the box for an easy finish beneath the Southwell keeper.

Given that Staveley Miners Welfare clearly had quite a young squad for this fixture, I was surprised that it was as one-sided as it ended up being: besides that header onto the crossbar I mentioned, I don't recall Southwell giving the Staveley keeper much to do. Staveley seemed to be quicker in both pace and thought across the park and constantly looked a threat on the attack, while Southwell seemed to run out of ideas fairly quickly and had a hard time breaking through effectively. Certainly much for them to think about ahead of their debut season at Step 6, and I wish both them and Staveley luck for the coming season.

Even with stoppage time being played in both halves, it wasn't even 3pm when the full-time whistle blew and so I had a long wait ahead of me before it would be worth heading back to the station. To pass the time, I ordered another Kopparberg from the bar and drank it while writing my match report and continuing to read the late stages of Dracula. I stayed in the bar for around forty minutes before deciding to walk back to the station, giving me a twenty-minute wait for my train back to Newark Castle to arrive.

By 5pm, I was back at Newark Northgate and had a twenty-minute wait for my final train of the day. I initially headed into the waiting room to get out of direct sunlight, but that was a big mistake as it was incredibly hot in there. Fortunately, I was able to find a shaded spot on the platform to wait for the train in. Though it ended up arriving a few minutes late, it still arrived in Peterborough more or less when I expected it to and that gave me enough time to finish Dracula too.

When I was picked up a few minutes later, I was told we would be stopping off in Yaxley first to pick up a Chinese takeaway we had ordered, and doing this meant we weren't back home until around 6:30pm. We had dinner straight away, so I had to wait a while before uploading my photos to Facebook and then relaxing for the evening.

I'm planning to do one more groundhop this month before the competitive season gets underway, but I'm not currently sure if that will be on Saturday the 23rd or Saturday the 30th. I'll probably ask for a lift somewhere either way, but I'll see how things go in the coming days and what options there are for me.

The Ground

Southwell City only moved into the Centenary Sports Ground in November (though their junior section will remain at their former Memorial Ground home) and so it is still very much a work-in-progress. As it stands, the only cover at the ground is a small area of covered standing on the dugout side of the ground which was closed off to spectators on my visit. The pitch is fully railed and has hard standing on two sides: the dugout side and behind the near goal. The ground currently lacks floodlights, but no doubt these will soon be in situ.

Currently, the only seating at the ground is in the form of some benches in front of the clubhouse, though a seated stand will at some point need to be added to meet Step 6 ground grading. The clubhouse contains a bar which sells a range of drinks (alcoholic or otherwise), hot food (Pukka Pies and sausage rolls), snacks and club merchandise.

As far as I can tell, the ground is sufficiently enclosed for Step 6, so with the addition of floodlights and seats it will be more than good enough for Step 6.

Photos

Netherton United - The Grange

Netherton United FC
The Grange
Charlotte Way
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE3 9ES

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 143
Date: Saturday 9th July 2022
Netherton United 5-1 Peterborough Polonia
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 26

Netherton United - History

Netherton United were founded in 1991 as an under-12 team after a group of local children were unable to find a local team to play for. The club moved through the age groups before moving up to adult football in 1998 when they could no longer play youth football. This saw them join Division 6 of the Peterborough & District League, the league's bottom tier at the time. However, they were moved up to Division 5 in 2001 when Division 6 was disbanded.

In their first season in Division 5, they finished as runners-up to earn promotion to Division 4 and finished 3rd in their first season at this level to earn promotion to Division 3. At the end of the 2004/05 season, the league was reduced to three divisions and this saw the club placed in Division 1 to continue their rapid upwards momentum.

Five years later, they won promotion to the Premier Division and this is where they have remained ever since, finishing as runners-up in the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons before winning the title in the 2017/18 season. The club have also applied for promotion to Step 6 several times in recent years, but a combination of restructuring at Step 6 and uncertainty brought about by the pandemic has seen the club drop those ambitions for the time being.

The club have won a number of local honours, winning the Peterborough Senior Cup in the 2017/18 season, the Peterborough & District League President Premier Shield in the 2013/14 and 2017/18 seasons and the league's Charity Shield in the 2014/15 season. Also, despite never playing above Step 7, they have competed in the FA Vase before in both the 2017/18 and 2019/20 seasons. However, they only won one of their four games in the competition by beating Downham Town in the 1st Qualifying Round in 2019 before suffering a narrow 2-3 defeat to Wroxham in the 2nd Qualifying Round.

My Visit

After the changes to Yaxley's pre-season schedule were confirmed, I had originally intended not to groundhop this weekend and instead be at our first pre-season friendly against Peterborough United's Under 23s. However, this changed when I found out my mum and stepdad would be away on Saturday and I decided, out of curiosity, to see if there were any new grounds I could get to on the bus.

Almost immediately, I saw that Netherton United were set to be at home and my decision was made. I did also look out for other local options such as FC Hampton (by far my most local unvisited club), but my tight budget ruled out most of the few other options that did emerge. The other challenge in my search for other options was the fact that most PDFL clubs are very inactive on social media, meaning I had no way of knowing if they would be playing or not.

Still, I kept my eyes open for any other option while doing my preparatory research during the week. Nothing else came up in the end, and I instead spent a lot of time figuring out my plans for the rest of the month after Yaxley's FA Cup draw was confirmed. This planning even continued into yesterday morning as I was preparing to leave and is still far from done as I type out this entry.

Regardless of all of that, I left the house at around 12:30pm yesterday and got a bus into Peterborough just before 1pm. I wasn't even on the bus for ten minutes before I had to get off and from there it was a short ten-minute walk to the ground. This meant I arrived with forty minutes to go before kick-off, giving me plenty of time to get into the cage and get my ground photos.

This sign was redundant, as you could walk straight into the ground from the "You are here" rather than going all the way around

In stark contrast to last weekend's wet and miserable weather, this was a very hot and sunny summer's day and the cover at the ground provided little protection from the sun due to being made from a transparent material (perspex, I think?). Still, it was better than nothing and so I remained there the whole time after taking my photos. Hopefully that was enough to stop me from getting sunburnt again so soon after that happened on holiday.

At the end of last season there was a two-tier difference between these two sides, with Netherton being in the Premier Division of the Peterborough & District League while Polonia were in Division 2. However, I understand that Polonia have won promotion to Division 1 for this season, so I was hoping this wouldn't prove to be too much of a pre-season mismatch.

Peterborough Polonia were awarded a penalty four minutes into this game, but their number 6's effort from the spot was tame and easily saved. Polonia would be made to rue this wasted opportunity when Netherton took the lead two minutes before half-time, their 11 scoring a direct free kick from just outside the box.

Eight minutes into the second half, Polonia equalised with an audacious long-range effort from their 11. This sparked a madcap ten minutes that saw four goals scored. Four minutes after the equaliser, Netherton regained their lead with a simple but effective corner routine: the ball was played short to their 8, who hit a powerful cross to the far post area where 7 was waiting to hit a header into the crossbar and in.

It was 3-1 almost immediately as Polonia cheaply conceded possession and Netherton's 11 hit one in from long-range. Two minutes later, he completed his hat-trick and made it 4-1 after a pass split the Polonia defence and set him through one-on-one for an easy finish. Netherton still weren't finished though and made it 5-1 with fifteen minutes to spare as their 10 caught the keeper out with a direct free kick from 30 yards.

Confusingly, Netherton were playing in their away kit for this game (and for the Reserves game that followed, it looked like), while Polonia were in the red and black that is usually Netherton's home colours

While it did prove to be a bit of a one-sided contest in the end, this was still another entertaining pre-season friendly and productive work-out for both teams, with Netherton's 11 (someone called Riley) being the stand-out player in his time on the field. Polonia were able to play well in spells and I could see their strategy of creating space upfield with tight passing sequences working well against Division 1 opposition, but Netherton's defence generally had enough nous to deal with it. Of course, it also helped that Netherton seemed to be fitter and had more players available, so they were able to rotate with substitutions throughout the game more often than Polonia were.

As with last week's friendly, this game kicked off around five minutes late and the needed drink breaks in each half meant the game didn't finish until just before 4pm (when Netherton's Reserves were set to kick off in their game against Eunice Huntingdon). Even with this being the case, after walking back to the bus stop I had around fifteen minutes to wait until the bus arrived.

While I waited, I found a spot in the shade near the bus stop and sat down on a wall there to write my match report. A minute or two after I finished writing, the bus arrived and it was a quick ten-minute journey back to Hampton, followed by a fifteen-minute walk back to the house. I then had time to sort out my photos and post them on social media before we had a barbecue for dinner. A good day out in all despite the heat.

As I mentioned early in this entry, I'm not really sure what my groundhopping plans for the rest of the month are now after Yaxley were drawn away at Ipswich Wanderers in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round. I think my plan is to do a double in Leicester on the 30th and then ask for a lift somewhere on the 23rd, but I'm not entirely certain yet.

The Ground

The Grange is a great ground for Step 7 and is the first I have visited that is inside a cage. Space limitations mean that there is only hard standing on two sides of the ground: behind the near goal and on the left-hand side of the pitch (relative to the entrance to the cage). Along the side of the pitch is an area of covered standing which provides the only cover at the ground with space for around 100 people.

The ground is also floodlit, with the pylons positioned outside of the cage due to the space constraints. The clubhouse is also outside of the cage and has recently had the club badge painted onto it. There is another smaller building next to this which has "Netherton" spelled out in bricks atop it and which now seems to be used as some sort of restaurant.

With the addition of some seats, the ground would be more than good enough for Step 6. There is space alongside the existing cover to do this if the club ever renews its ambitions of playing at Step 6.

Photos