Centenary Sports Ground
Fiskerton Road
Brinkley
Southwell
Nottinghamshire
NG25 0TP
Official Website
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
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