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.
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.
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
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