FA Vase 2nd Round
Saturday 14th November 2009
Glossop is a former mill town, situated in the north-west corner of Derbyshire in the Borough of High Peak. The gateway to the Peak District National Park.
The name derives from Glott’s Hop and thought to come from Saxon origin - Glott is believed to be a chieftains name, while ’Hop’ is a small valley.
The town has produced many famous and noteworthy people. The likes of Man U’s European Cup winner John Aston, Shaun Ryder and Bez from ’90’s drug fuelled popsta’s the Happy Mondays.
Those dolce tones of broadcasting legend Stuart Hall grew up in the town, while fashion (if that’s what you wanna called it!…Eddy) designer Vivienne Westwood was born nearby.
Glossop also gave the world novelist Hilary Mantel and let’s not forget publisher Paul Raymond, who was educated in the town and gave us our favourite read while coach travelling to away matches - the legendary Razzle.
Glossop North End formed in 1886, originally played four years in the North Cheshire League until joining the Combination in 1894, finishing second and third over consecutive seasons.After turning professional they spent two seasons in the Midland League, again finishing league runners-up. The following season after a sixth place finish the club were elected to the Second Division of the Football League for season 1898-99.
Local businessman and politician Sir Stanley Hill-Wood was the club’s main patron. His financial backing saw them gain promotion to the First Division in their opening season, after finishing runners-up to Manchester City.
The following year a basic name change to Glossop FC ended with relegation, the club finishing bottom of the First Division, although that historic season gave the club the honour of being the smallest town to have a club in the English top flight.
Glossop played the following 15 years in the Second Division, until failing to gain re-election on the eve of the First World War.
After the war the club reappeared in the Lancashire Combination, then dropped into the Manchester League, winning the title in 1927-28, as well as the league’s Gilgryst Cup on four occasions.
In 1957 Glossop returned to the Lancashire Combination and reappeared in the Manc League in the mid sixties until becoming founder members of the Cheshire League Second Division in 1978-79.
The club won promotion in their third season, then finished sixth in the Cheshire League’s last season before merging with the Lancashire Combination. Glossop becoming founder members of the North West Counties League in 1982.
In 1992 the club reverted back to their original name, when the present board of directors saved the club from going out of business the previous year. A season which saw them win promotion back to the NWC Division One after a four year absence.
North End have enjoyed success in both the Derbyshire Senior Cup and the Manchester FA Premier Cup, however last season saw the club’s highest league finish of fifth and a visit to Wembley, losing 2-0 to Whitley Bay in the final of the FA Vase.
The Hillmen navigated nine rounds in the Vase, including a thrilling two legged semi final with Chalfont St Peter. The teams finishing 5-5 on aggregate over both games, with Glossop overcoming their opponents 6-5 on penalties in front of a Surrey Street attendance of 1,582.
In there formative years the club had a nomadic existence, played at a variety of ground in the town; Pyegrove, Silk Street, Water Lane and Cemetery Road, before settling at North Road.The North Road ground was primarily a cricket ground and is still in use today by Glossop Cricket Club. The record gate was 10,736 for an FA Cup 2nd Round tie with Preston North End in January 1914.
The club moved to their present home in 1955 on land which had been used as a admiralty tip and stores depot during the war.
Although best known as Surrey Street, the grounds official name is the Arthur Goldthorpe Stadium, named after a local estate agent who covered half the grounds cost, donating £700 towards the construction of the stadium.
The ground is easy enough to find with the chimney from the neighbouring Ferro Alloys factory, dominating the town’s skyline.
All the grounds facilities are found towards one half of the pitch. Once entering the turnstiles, the Chris Ringland Lounge clubhouse with souvenir shop, toilets and refreshment bar (which serves a superb Chicken Balti Pie and big cup of gravy tea for £2) and two steps of covered terrace are all situated behind the goal.
The main stand replaced the original which was burnt down in the ‘70’s. The stand runs from the corner flag up towards the dugouts, with a blue frame and just over 200 red flip seats.
The Surrey Street end has standing cover in the middle third with a small PA box parallel with the half way line. The far end is open with another FC next door, not a football club, but KFC with Colonel Sanders smiling face looking in enjoying a free view of events on the pitch.
Twin lamp floodlight pylons on each side were added in 1992 thanks to the hard work of the local community, donating materials which brought the ground up to the required NWC First Division standard.
Glossop progressed into the 3rd round of the FA Vase but had to hang on to claim a narrow victory over Dunston UTS.The home side started brightly and took an 11th minute lead through Danny Yates. A long free kick from the right saw Yates loose his marker, his initial shot was well saved but the rebound fell kindly for him to poke the ball past Connell.
Two minutes later North End had the chance to get a stranglehold on the tie after being awarded a penalty after a push inside the box. Dave Young stepped up only to see his effort brilliantly saved by Liam Connell, diving to his right hand side.
Dunston felt harshly done by when the referee failed to give a penalty after a similar incident on Steven Preen, his appeal to the ref falling on deaf ears or should that be blind eyes!
The second half saw The Fed dominate possession with North End having their backs to the wall for long periods of the half. However Dunston didn’t seriously trouble Glossop keeper Cooper, with most of their goal attempts failing to hit the target.
The home side could have wrapped up proceedings late on, Dave Hodges was clear through on goal with only the keeper to beat, but agonizingly saw his shot go wide.
So Glossop North End go into tomorrows 3rd round draw in their pursuit of a return to the final, however they’ll have to dramatically improve on this performance for their Wembley dream to become a reality.
I booked a seat on one of two coaches which headed down to Derbyshire for this FA Vase tie at a credit crunching price of only £12, thanks to work colleague and mate Lee Robbo.We left Dunston’s UTC Stadium at 10.30am (no longer Federation Park, I promise to do a feature on this sometime this season) The journey via A1, M1 and the picturesque Pennine setting of the A628 took only two and a half hours, no pissing about for toilet stops or fag breaks, straight there, arriving at 1pm, Champion!
I headed straight to the GBG listed ‘Star Inn’ where, within five minutes, four likeminded Dunston fans arrived in pursuit of a decent pint.
We then headed to The Oakwood on the main High Street where the barman greeted us with the immortal line..“I’m afraid your going to be disappointed, we’ve got no beer!” there was only Guinness and lager to be had. A pub with no beer = Alcoholics sacrilege!
We then headed across the road to the splendidly named ‘Corner Cupboard’ where they did have beer and a room full of Dunston fans.
There was still time to call into the Robinsons ‘The Friendship’ where I finally met up with another Robinson - Lee, who was on the other coach with the players and had arrived later.
Apart from the result, I had a great day, making new friends and enjoying a good little pub crawl. It’s a shame The Fed’s (as far as I’m concerned it’ll always be The Fed) Vase run has came to a premature end as I was already looking forward before kick-off to another Vase trip away with Dunston, but as the old football cliché goes - There’s always next season!
Matchday statsGNE 1(Yates 11) DUTS 0
Att.378
Admission £6
(15 pictures)
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