Southwell City - Centenary Sports Ground

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

Official Website
Twitter

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

Cottesmore - Westray Park

Cottesmore AFC
Westray Park
Burley Road
Cottesmore
Oakham
Rutland
LE15 7DH

Official Website

Twitter

Ground: 142
Date: Saturday 2nd July 2022
Cottesmore 5-2 Horncastle Town
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 35

Cottesmore - History

Cottesmore were founded in 1941 as Cottesmore Amateurs (it is not clear when they dropped the Amateurs from their name) and spent the first 40 or so years of their existence in local leagues. In the 1980s, they moved up to the Leicester & District League before moving up to the Leicestershire Senior League in 1992. After finishing 3rd in their first season in Division 1, they won promotion to the Premier Division and remained there until a bottom-place finish in 2001 saw them relegated back to Division 1.

Seven years later, the club finished bottom of Division 1 but found themselves promoted to the Premier Division due to vacancies arising from the creation of the East Midlands Counties League: eight clubs left the Premier Division to join the new league, and this allowed Cottesmore to be promoted due to their ground being floodlit. They have remained in the Premier Division ever since, but they have ambitions of climbing the pyramid and have applied for promotion to Step 6 in recent seasons.

Despite having never played above Step 7, the club have competed in the FA Vase once before: in the 2019/20 season, they beat higher-level opposition in Radford and Harrowby United before losing to fellow Step 7 side Clay Cross Town in the 1st Round. On a more local level, they became the first side outside of Lincolnshire to win the Ancaster Cup in the 2012/13 season, repeating the feat in the 2014/15 and 2018/19 seasons. They also won the Leicestershire Senior League's League Cup in the 2019/20 season.

My Visit

It's been a long and boring six weeks of no football, a decent chunk of which has been spent coming up with different plans for pre-season groundhopping. The monotony was broken up by a week away in Cromer in mid-June, my first holiday since the covid pandemic. It was a great holiday, but no football being on felt like something of a missed opportunity when we were staying so close to Cromer Town's Cabbell Park ground (I also got some photos of Wells Town's ground when we visited Wells-next-the-Sea during the week).

Either way, my plans at that point were to start groundhopping on the 9th of July, with my first match of the season set to be Yaxley's home pre-season friendly on the 2nd of July. While on holiday, I set my sights on a long-overdue visit to Great Yarmouth Town on the 9th of July, but by the time I was home again I realised that this wouldn't be affordable due to having to pay for a pre-order earlier than I was expecting; wherever I went for my first groundhop of the season, it would have to be a fair bit cheaper than Great Yarmouth would be.

Then another wrench was thrown into my plans by the fact that Yaxley's first pre-season friendly was cancelled due to a shortage of players. This left me with a dilemma: should I try to find a new ground to visit on the 2nd instead, or would I be better of waiting until the 9th for there to be more options involving lower-level teams that would be more affordable to visit on my low budget?

I thought about it for a bit and ultimately decided to ask for a lift to this game because I didn't really want to wait for football any longer if I could avoid it. While I had been considering visiting Cottesmore on the 23rd for the Rutland Cup final, this was preferable to not getting a game in at all for another week (and I've also found plenty more options on the 23rd anyway).

After receiving approval for a lift I had the rest of the week to do my usual research, think of more potential plans for the rest of the month and continue to work on updating the Step 7 page of my football grounds document (I'll add that to the blog next month, or whenever I'm satisfied that it's fully up-to-date). I was also starting to think about planning around my ambition to watch a match in every single Step 7 league (excluding groundshares and second pitches) and this briefly made me regret ticking Cottesmore for a pre-season friendly, as it was comfortably my easiest way to get a tick in the Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division. However, there's plenty of other easy options for me in that league, so the regret quickly passed.

With Cottesmore only being a half-hour drive away, we didn't have to leave the house yesterday until just after 1pm and this saw me dropped off at the ground with around 25 minutes to go until kick-off. It started to rain a little as I made my way into the ground, before stopping for a while as I worked on my circuit of photos and watched some swallows flitting around inches above the pitch in search of food.

The rain was very stop-start throughout the first half before becoming torrential for much of the second half, so I spent the entire match under the wooden cover while moving every now and then to try and get the best view possible of both goalmouths (easier said than done with support pillars in the way). It definitely didn't feel like a summer's day in terms of the weather or temperature, to put it lightly.

Normally, I don't post league tables this early into the season, but at least for pre-season matches I think it will be interesting to post last season's league tables to see how the two teams fared last season. In this case, we can see that Cottesmore had a much better season in Step 7 than opponents Horncastle Town did last year, but not quite good enough to win promotion as they finished behind two other applicants.

Only Horncastle posted a teamsheet, but without numbers it didn't help much with my match report

Cottesmore caught Horncastle napping early on to take a 2nd minute lead, their number 10 hitting a shot beneath the keeper. Cottesmore were on top for most of the first half after this and Horncastle struggled to get any sort of attack together.

The away side had their first shot on goal in the 39th minute before equalising two minutes later: after a quick counter, the Horncastle 7 ran onto the ball and chipped it over the keeper from just inside the box. On the stroke of half-time, Cottesmore regained the lead as their 9 ran down the wing and set up 10 to turn past a defender and place his shot in the bottom corner.

Ten minutes into what became a very wet second half, Horncastle equalised for a second time when someone found space in the box to hit a low shot across the keeper and in. Cottesmore regained their lead once more in the 71st minute when their 9 was left unmarked on the edge of the box for an easy finish.

In the final ten minutes, the game started to become very stretched and Cottesmore were taking full advantage by playing long balls over the top. This tactic paid off in the 82nd minute as Cottesmore's 17 scored their fourth with a powerful half-volley after being left in acres of space. It was then 5-2 six minutes later as their 10 beat the offside trap and calmly chipped the keeper.

After six weeks away, this was a good game to start my 2022/23 groundhopping season with, or about as good as you could expect from a pre-season friendly. Certainly a good run-out for both sides to start their pre-season preparation with.

Despite kicking off around five minutes late, a slightly shorter half-time break meant the game finished at around 3:45pm and I headed straight out of the ground and back to the car to get out of the rain. The half-hour drive home gave me more than enough time to write up my match report, and this allowed me to make an early start on sorting out my photos before settling in for a relaxing evening.

In terms of my upcoming groundhopping plans, I've got some broad ideas for what I want to do this month, but I'll wait until next week's FA Cup draw to finalise them one way or another. Regardless of that, I'll be aiming for another groundhop next weekend, either by visiting my most local club FC Hampton (who play below Step 7) or by getting a bus into Peterborough to tick off Netherton United. That will depend on the weather and on if FC Hampton actually have a game next weekend or not.

The Ground

Westray Park (named in recognition of their former chairman's 61 years of service to the club) is a great ground for Step 7 that probably only needs seats to be good enough for Step 6. Unlike many at this level, the ground is floodlit and enclosed, thanks in part to being surrounded by trees and hedges on three sides. Furthermore, the ground has hard standing on two sides: behind the near goal and on most of the near side. There is also space to potentially add more hard standing behind the far goal in future, while the dugout side looks too cramped and overgrown for hard standing to be viable.

There is also some covered standing at the ground in the form of a small wooden structure that is very pleasing on the eye. However, its supporting pillars do somewhat restrict the view of the pitch, depending on where you stand inside.

A small training/children's football pitch sits above the main pitch and is even fitted with two small wooden dugouts. A series of shipping containers can also be found up here for toilets, a tea hut known as Cotts Cafe and the players' changing rooms.

Photos