St Helens Town/Ashton Athletic - Brocstedes Park
Personally, I love the FA Cup. I
think it’s one of the best club cup competitions in the world. One of the main
reasons I love it is because every club in England gets a chance to compete in
it at some stage throughout the competition, well, from Step Six of the
Non-League pyramid and above. Sure, you have to qualify, finish well in the
table etc. But you still get a chance.
Over the past few seasons the
team I support, Atherton Collieries, have competed in this beautifully historic
competition and on Saturday 16th August (when the FA Cup kicked off
for the 2014/15 season) they faced NWCFL Premier Division side St Helens Town
away in the first round, the Extra Prenimalery Round, a game I was not going to
miss!
For those of you that don’t know,
St Helens currently ground share with Ashton Athletic, so technically I will be
visiting Ashton Athletic’s ground (Brocstedes Park) but I will still be judging
St Helens on the whole match day experience (i.e. the programme, friendliness
etc.).
The day of the game soon came
around and as always on a Colls match day I was picked up very kindly by club
coach Scott Campbell (this is your moment of fame Scott) who gave me a lift to
Alder House after picking up defender Gaz Carson. Once inside the club house at
Alder House I was met by Emil who was playing darts and James (Lobely) who was
flicking through last Saturday’s programme.
With time to burn, I and James
were asked to clean the changing rooms and of course, we didn’t mind and walked
over to clean them up for the next home game. That got me thinking, this is why
I love Non-League Football. There I was, cleaning the changing rooms despite us
not playing at home before an FA Cup tie. I love it! You wouldn’t get an
Arsenal or Newcastle United supporter doing that now, would you?
Changing rooms cleaned, and I
must say we did do a good job; we walked back over to the club house for Emil
and co to organise who was going in what car. In the end, myself, James and
Arthur all fitted into Vincent’s car and we began the journey to
Ashton-in-Makerfield to watch the Collieries play in the FA Cup.
A few weeks back, on the way to
Cammel Laird, James and Emil had travelled to Birkenhead in Vincent’s car, they
listened to the likes of Frozen and John Barrowmen on the way there, and it’s
safe to say I had missed out! Unfortunately, there was no Frozen or anything of
that kind played during our journey to Brocstedes Park but to make up for that
we were playing Heart as we made our way out of Leigh, perfect!
Both Arthur and Emil told me
before we set off that despite being able to see Brocstedes Park from the
motorway the ground is located in quite literally the middle of nowhere, they
were right. You can just about see he floodlights from the motor way but for
some strange reason, unknown to man, to get to the ground you have to make your
way off the motorway then turn onto this small and unkown road, I thought we
were lost until I saw the welcome to Ashton Athletic sign, it was my beacon of
hope!
Once inside the ground I picked
up the match day Programme, the Marksman. I had heard good things about the
Programme there for a while now and after handing over m £2.00 it was good to
get my hands on one. Normally, I don’t like paying £2.00 at NWCFL for a
Programme; however this was an exception as it was such a good issue. Full of
well researched content and wonderfully designed, the Programme would not look
out of place in the Football League!
So, who are St Helens Town?
Well, originally Town was formed
from 1901 to 1928 however, the men in charge at the time decided to re-form the
club in 1946, entering the Liverpool combination in the 1947/48 season. St
Helens first won some silver where in 1949, beating Runcorn in the George Mahon
Cup. In the 1971/72 season St Helens were crowned champions of the Lancashire
Combination, beating Accrington Stanley to it by only loosing one game all
season. In 1982 St Helens, like many other clubs joined the North West Counties
League. The FA Vase was won by St Helens in 1987 after beating Warrington Town
at Wembley in the final. St Helens have a number of former players that went
onto play big roles in football, Bert Trautman, Bill Foulkes, John Connelly to
name only a few. In 2000 St Helens moved in with the Rugby League club of the
town – St Helens RC, sharing their Knowsley Road gound which when demolished in
2010 St Helens moved up the road to Ashton-in-Makerfield to share Ashton Town’s
Edge Green Street for three seasons before moving to Ashton Athletic’s
Brocstedes Park with plans to move back to St Helens for the 2015-16 season.
As for Brocstedes Park. Well,
it’s fairly basic but I like it and for me it does have a bit of character.
As you walk through the
Turnstiles you’ll find yourself on the side in which all of the grounds main
facilities are located. On the fair right (on this side), running half the
length of the pitch is a seating/standing stand. It consists of 3/4 red seating
(three rows deep) and 1/4 sheltered standing – a nice little stand indeed. The
next building a long is the clubhouse which is a nice little building. Followed
by the refreshments hut, more on that later. The furthest stand along on this
side is another strange and very small all seating stand, it’s about ten seats
wide and four rows deep.
The other three sides of the
ground are just hard standing, but overall it is one of the nicer grounds that
I’ve visited on my travels, I really liked it!
I had not yet had my dinner, with
that in mind I made my way to the Refreshments Hut to get some. There wasn’t a
wide range of choice but that didn’t matter because for myself it was an easy
one. I opted for a Steak Pie priced at £1.50. The pie proved to be a good
purchase, it did the job and filled me up, it tasted good too, I highly
recommend the pie there.
With around fifteen minutes to go
until kick off I made my way to the standing area of the biggest stand.
Standing right next to the corner flag as this was the end Colls were
attacking.
It was a big game for both sides, one that I
couldn’t wait for. With the excitement building the two teams came out and I,
along with 113 others watched the first half unfold in front of us.
Bellow is the Match Report that I
wrote as Match Reporter for Atherton Collieries, it can also be read at - http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/athertoncollieries/s/match-centre-115587/0-2440507.
The Collieries started out the
better of the two sides, hitting the bar and having two other good chances to
take the lead inside the first five minutes. One of the most notable chances
was on six minutes, Mark Truffas collected the ball on his left wing before
passing the ball directly through the St Helens box, and Saints’ defenders did
a good job in getting the ball clear.
A similar chance for the
Collieries was recorded on the thirteenth minute, this time Ben Hardcastle
collected the ball on his right wing, passing into the St Helens box only for
it to be again cleared by the Saints defence.
Colls failed to turn their early
chances into goals and St Helens capitalised on this by scoring two goals in
the space of only three minutes. The first being scored on nineteen minutes by
St Helens centre back Hamish Falconer. Falconer fired in after a Saints corner
was floated into the Colls area. The second goal came on the twenty second
minute, Saints’ captain Andrew Gillespie curled into the left hand corner of
the goal from twenty five yards out giving St Helens a 2-0 lead against the
Collieries.
Despite going 2-0 down the
Collieries kept going, searching for that goal which would give them a footpath
back into the game. That goal came from a Mark Truffas set piece on thrity
seven minutes. Truffas fired his free kick low, in the bottom of the left hand
corner, another fine set piece from Mark Truffas.
Two minutes later the game was
nearly level. Atherton Collieries striker Kristian Holt received the ball just
a few yards from the edge of the D, however his shot was fired well wide of the
St Helens Town goal.
Half Time – St Helens Town 2-1
Atherton Collieries
During half time I made my way
back over to the Refreshments Hut to purchase a little snack. I opted for a
Dairy Milk chocolate bar, plain, simple and did the job. After checking up on
the scores elsewhere it was time for the second half to begin.
The Collieries drew level on the fifty second
minute; St Helens goalkeeper Christopher Brinksman saved the initial shot from
Collieries striker Mark Battersby, Brinksman weakly parried the shot straight
into the path of Hardcastle who tapped into the Saints’ goal. Eight minutes
later the Collieries recorded another chance on goal, a sweet ball hit forward
from the Collieries midfield was collected well by Battersby however his shot
drifted wide of the goal.
On sixty four minutes the
Collieries deservedly found themselves ahead, a penalty won by Ben Hardcastle
was duly dispatched by Battersby – scoring his first of the game. The
Collieries scored their fourth five minutes later. It was a goal out of
nothing, Collieries’ James Brooks ran forward down the left wing from his left
back position, picking the ball up on his way then finishing after shaking off
the St Helens defenders.
Another Collieries goal was
scored with just three minutes of normal time remaining, substitute Matty
Boland whipped the ball in for fellow substitute Phil Howard to tap in.
Full Time – St Helens 2-5
Atherton Collieries
A superb fight back from
Collieries after being 2-0 down inside the first twenty five minutes, the lads
showed great spirit and passion to come back in the way that they did, a very
proud moment for everybody involved with Atherton Collieries.
After the game everyone made
their way back into the clubhouse to celebrate what was a fine win indeed and
the fact the mighty Colls have progressed to the next round of the FA Cup. A
few drinks later and we made our way back to Alder House, everybody was in a
good mood.
Scott, very generously gave me a
lift back to my house and that was that. It had been a great day down at St
Helens, they’re a lovely club and I do hope one day they eventually find a new
home in St Helens. Their award winning programme deserves all the praise it
receives and the Editor clearly spends a lot of time working on it! I would
really recommend to visit both St Helens and Brocstedes Park.
Tuesday 12th August – St Helens Town 2-5 Atherton Collieries – The FA Cup – Brocstedes Park – Game #17 – Ground #41
Ground: - 8/10 – Nice ground – recommend to tick.
Programme:
- 10/10 – Best in the league.
Food:
- Pie – 7/10 – Nice, pretty
standard.
Match: - 10/10 – Very
entertaining.
Miles
Travelled TO Ground: - 18.9miles
Money Spent:
- £4.30
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