Nelson FC - Victoria Park (Little Wembley)

Oh, don’t you just love that feeling. After seven long football free weeks it feels great to say, football is back.Personally, I love pre-season, the sun is out, the pitch is in perfect condition (not for long) and you have the opportunity to watch well known football league teams play a non-league team local to them.

Over the long lasting seven weeks I have been devising a pre-season schedule and for this week I planned to take my first ever trip up to ‘Little Wembley’ home of The Admirals, Nelson FC whom were facing a league side, Accrington Stanley who, over the summer, appointed England’s one cap wonder James Beatie as their manager.

I have heard good, positive words spoke about Nelson and as a NWCFL fan I decided with a good game on offer, it was time to pay them a visit.

Originally, my plan was to take the train to Nelson (from Bromley Cross) with two of my good friends; however they both informed me on the Friday night before they both couldn’t make. Step in Granddad, who offered to take me to the game and watch it with me. So plans were quickly changed and to Nelson we went…1:15 was the time myself and Granddad left his house, in Entwistle (15 minutes away from Drawen) and a quick drive over the proud hills of Lancashire and a three junction long spell on the M65 we arrived at our destination, the beautiful town of Nelson.

From what I saw in the car, Nelson is a very nice little town. For those of you that don’t know the exact geographical location of Nelson, it’s just north of Burnley. When you go to Nelson there is a very industrial feel about the place. Terraced hoses cramped together, old mills; this again adds character to Nelson FC and Nelson the town.

Granddad and I squeezed through the rather small turnstile paying £4.00 each (both concessions) with me picking up a programme along the way. For £1.50 the programme, in my opinion, is and should be seen as a definate purchase it’s a good sized, full colour publication with up to date fixture lists, interviews and news reports.

As far as Little Wembley (Victoria Park), well, no doubt about it, in the sun it is one of the nicest and most beautiful football grounds I have been to. The ground in engulfed with history, character and above all class.

When you walk through the turnstiles, no, let me rephrase that, when you squeeze through the turnstiles you are standing in what I am going to call The Blue Fence End. Simply because it’s pretty basic. It only has a pitch perimeter, turnstiles and a blue fence. Hence the not so creative name.

Opposite you is The Yellow Boat End. The name that I came up with comes from the fact that on the embankment in the corner of this part of the stand there is a yellow boat. Why? I don’t know, it does however add to the character of the ground. At this end of the ground you will find the changing room, the toilets, the old kitchen and the new kitchen (the clubhouse). As this was a good chance to advertise themselves Nelson put on several events at this end of the ground. In the old kitchen you could buy ‘authentic curry’, there was a barbeque outside the new kitchen, next to that a programme stall, with football and non-league programmes from around the country and a merchandise stall.

In the new kitchen (clubhouse) along with drink, food, tables and whatnot you will find a good sized plasma T.V which airs ‘Nelson T.V’ which shows you highlights, interviews, comersial adverts etc. Superb idea, it’s good to see a non-league club move forward like this!

To the right of you will be the main stand. This is the only seated area of the ground. Although, the seating is restricted by about 6 pillars.

Left of you will be The Popular Side. This appeared to be where a good majority of the crowd gathered. It’s a simple layout, its home to a pitch perimeter barrier and the dugouts. More or less directly behind this stand is a row of terraced, cramped together houses. This again, adds to the character of the ground.

After demolishing a well recommended pie, and buying six old programmes from the stall (2 FC United, 2 Burnley, 1 AFC Fylde, 1 Chester FC), it was time for the two teams to come out onto the carpet like surface of Victoria Park (Little Wembley).

The game didn’t take long to settle down and in the early minutes both teams had good opportunity’s to open the scoring. Nelson had a good ten minute spell where they had good controlled possession.However, it was Accrington who opened the scoring on 16 minutes.

Accrington’s James Gray intercepted Nelson’s Chris Turner pass across midfield. Gray went on to score past Nelson stopper Ben Woodhead.

Accrington then doubled their lead just two minutes later, bad communication between the Nelson back four led to again, James Gray nicking the ball of them and running through to score.

It was soon Nelsons turn to hit the score sheet. Nat Taylor robed the ball off Stanley and hit a simple cross. Stanley’s Tom Aldred headed the ball into the top left corner of his own goal despite a strong shout from his goal keeper Andrew Dawber. Halftime soon came.

At half time I didn’t practically do much. I bought another drink from the new kitchen and with it being a sunny day I just sat outside and soaked up the positive atmosphere around the place.

Second half began with early Stanley pressure it was Nelson however who were first to score in the second half, on 54 minutes.

A simple ball pumped out by the Nelson defence should have been dealt with better by Stanley’s Watson; he took a terrible first touch enabling Nelson’s Nat Taylor to take control of the ball, run through and score a wonderful goal from 25 yards.

The level score lasted only eight minutes. Stanley’s Peter Murphy scoring a header from a Marcus Carver corner to make the score Nelson 2-3 Stanley.

On 66 minutes Stanley added to their advantage, Will Hatfield finished off a good Stanley move which started back with the right back.

Towards the closing minutes of the game you began to tell who the professional side were, Nelson began to tire.

The game began to get scrappy towards the latter stages, the full time whistle went and the final score was, Nelson 2 – 4 Accrington.

Nelson had a good game and really did test Accrington, I would be surprised if Nelson didn’t finish in the top 4 of the NWCFL this season.

With Granddad going out that night we didn’t have time to stick around so we walked straight back to the car and had no problems getting away.

Overall, I had a superb day at Nelson, it’s a shame they don't have as much support as they do, Nelson isn’t a small town and if some more locals began to watch them I am sure it will help them a lot. Nelson are a forward thinking football club, they have a lot of land to work on and already have a beautiful stadium and with the addition of Nelson TV it makes the ground that bit more impressive.

My good mood was dampened when I found out that night I got sacked from my job at ‘Ku’s Special’ for some completely made up reason! Oh well, head up!