Revisit - Kingston Park

The FA have confirmed that Newcastle Blue Star will reclaim their place in the Arngrove Northern League Division One next season, after giving notice of voluntary relegation earlier in the month.
The news sent shockwaves throughout the non-league football scene in the North-East, Northern League clubs have been accused of lacking ambition, happy in the comfort zone of playing local football instead of stepping up to a national level. Blue Star took the step into the newly constructed Unibond Division One North, but have decided it’s not for them, based purely on geographical reasons, this was highlighted in yesterdays match programme, which featured a mileage chart highlighting their plight, the closest club is Harrogate RA (83 miles) and the furthest is Skelmersdale (164 miles) so the fact that the players might not be home in time for Ant and Dec’s Saturday Takeaway is a decisive factor.
But seriously I wish the club would stay put and hope the experience won’t put off other Northern League clubs making the step up, if more clubs were to progress giving the North-East a bigger percentage of clubs in the Unibond then that would solve some of the travel problems and reduce costs.
Blue Star have heavily invested in a good squad of players, I attended the game against Mossley and saw an entertaining 5-1 win, it’s a shame that a sparse crowd of only 73 were in attendance, there was more in The Hiding Place Sports & Lounge Bar which is situated in the main stand, than outside watching the main action, maybe the comfy surroundings and live Premier League football on half a dozen screens, was a far more attractive alternative to 22 players running around chasing a ball in the pouring rain.
Kingston Park is probably now one of the best grounds in Non-League football, I don’t know what the future hold ground wise for the club, but the point of this post and my revisit is I wanted to see Blue Star play in the Unibond and take some better photographs of Kingston Park to share on the website.
So here they are; Kingston Park Matchday Web album

My original visit to Kingston Park – Ground no.126 can be found here.
My visit to the Wheatshief Ground, which includes a brief history of Blue Star, can be found here.
My match report for Non-League Blog (to follow)

Update April 22nd ‘08
Newcastle Blue Star made a u-turn on their decision to return to the ANL, a meeting of the UBL Management Committee on April 21st confirmed the club had been readmitted.
Why the sudden change of heart? The problems the club highlights haven’t gone away, whatever their reasons for staying (maybe it’s because they read this post) its good news for NE Non-League football.
The team has been on a great run and has climbed the table under the guidance of new boss Paul Baker, they’ll be hoping the make further progression next season.

My Matchday - 164 Ingfield

Ossett Town 0v3 Gateshead
Unibond Premier League
24th March 2008
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Ossett is an old industrial town in West Yorkshire, sandwiched in between Dewsbury and Wakefield, despite being a small town it has two football clubs, Ossett Albion and my latest destination Ingfield, the home of Ossett Town.
The club were formed in 1936, the brainchild of Mr. John Carter and a group of local sports fans, originally playing in the Leeds League, before joining the Yorkshire League after the war. Town’s original ground was at Fern House, but in 1957 moved to the current site, all thanks to Blackburn(no not Rovers) Derek Blackburn was sold to Swansea Town and with the £1350 transfer fee they were able to purchase Ingfield. They played within the three divisions of the Yorkshire League and regularly hit four figure attendances during this era, but without much success on the field.
The club became founder members of the North Counties East League and won back to back promotions between 1988 and 1990, their highest finish in the NCEL Premier Division came in 1998/99, finishing runner-up to neighbours Ossett Albion, but Albion were denied promotion due to ground grading regulations, so Town took their place(I bet they loved that!) in the Unibond Division One.
After finishing runners-up in 2001/02 they were harshly denied promotion to the Unibond Premier as the club missed the deadline on ground improvements, but they did make it the following season due to the formation of the Conference North.
Ingfield has a capacity of 4,000 with a record crowd of 2,600 in a pre-season friendly against Man Yoo in 1988, it’s been upgraded during the last year, amenities like new toilets, changing rooms and a club shop, these as well as other facilities, like the clubhouse are found on your immediate entry into the ground.
There is one main stand ’The Prospect Road Stand’ situated behind the goal, it has 360 red flip seats which were transferred from Doncaster’s Belle Vue before the ground was demolished, they still have the ‘reserved’ stickers on the back, evidence that in their previous life, the seats belonged to the backsides of Rovers season-ticket holders. There’s a disabled viewing area next to the stand and to the other side there’s a terrace with some very wonky looking crash barriers. Both sides of the ground have partial cover, running roughly parallel with one half of the pitch, the shelter on the nearside incorporates the changing rooms, I noticed that the front panel of the roof was covered with dints off the ball getting blasted off it and the two portkabins stacked up behind used as hospitality, had one cabin precariously balancing on top of the other. Behind the far goal there’s a hard standing area and there’s plenty of floodlight pylons, seven all together which were installed in the late 1980’s.
Town must have fancied there chances of getting at least a point after a recent mini run of good results, even against a Gateshead side with only three away defeats over the last calendar year, but hopes of an upset became more unlikely after a dream start for the Tynesiders with a goal after only 12 seconds(thanks to timekeeper Alan Price for the accuracy) a great through ball from Brayson found Wayne Phillips who timed his run to perfection, leaving himself with the simple task of knocking the ball past the keeper. Several chances later it was 0-2, right back Baxter played a good one-two with Gate before rifling his shot into the top corner of the net, Ossett came more into the game as the half progressed, but overall the Heed defence had a comfortable afternoon, limiting the home attack to long range efforts, which were closer to the neighbouring buildings than the Gateshead goal. A good afternoon’s work was completed on 51 minutes, good work from Bowey allowed Phillips the simple task to grab his second, Paul Brayson later had chances to add to the three goal tally, but overall a convincing performance and well earned three points.
It promises to be an exciting end to season, as Gateshead are expected to retain there stranglehold on a place-off berth and hopefully hold on the 3rd position, meaning home field advantage for the play-off semi final, yesterday’s battle of the top 2 saw leaders Witton crash 3-0 at home to Fleetwood, so it’s left to those two clubs to battle out for the title and runners-up spot.
As for Ossett Town, they’ve improved again this season and will be looking towards a another top 10 finish and the possibility of their highest ever finish within the non-league pyramid, which for a town with two clubs and a small but loyal fan base, is quite an achievement.

Thanks to Captain Carter for the lift to Ossett, much appreciated and another enjoyable day for the Heed Army, the support was top class considering no bus was available, but our convoy of cars who made to journey to Yorkshire swelled the attendance and gave the team great backing. Heed Army! Howay the Lads!

Ground no.164 Ingfield - Matchday Web album(14 pictures)

Gettin!! The Return of the Football Bog Blog!!

After an unwanted break, I’m thrilled to announce the return of ‘The Football Bog Blog’ unfortunately while on my travels I haven’t come across any toilets worthy of joining the rest of the netty elite, but just like the preverbal 56 bus, none for ages then two arrive together.
So the series continues and don’t forget anyone is free to contribute, if you see a football bog that you think is good enough to enter the toilet walls of fame, then email me your picture along with a few details to this address.

The Football Bog Blog

Great stadia toilets No.10 in a series of....who knows?
The ones at Skemmy that aren't smeggy!
If you looked at this picture and didn’t already know what it was, you could easily have mistaking it for the players tunnel, it’s designed in a similar way with ladies facilities to the left (away team) and the gents on the right (home team) with a disabled toilet at the back (officials) They are very clean, well maintained and pleasing on the eye, painted in the club colours of blue and white and to set it off; the Unibond League flag perched proudly on top.

The Football Bog Blog

Great stadia toilets, no.11 in a series of...whatever!
The ones at Brandon, the small concrete cube behind the goal
This little concrete cube can be found behind the far goal at Brandon United, I only discovered this bog when leaving the ground near the end of the game, maybe the reason it didn’t come to my attention was because no one used it; and who would? I certainly wouldn’t want to unzip and do my business against this wall, as Brandon can get a bit chilly and is fully exposed to high winds. It’ll take a brave man to use this bog in the winter and like I’ve said; I didn’t witness anyone courageous enough to try it.

Football Fanzine Awards

The 100 Football Grounds Club is now short listed in the New Football Polls Fanzine Awards - Blog Category.
Many Thanks to everyone who showed their support by voting, this means it’s now down to the final 9, I’ve had to send three pieces of work to showcase the blog and then it’s up to the judges to decide on the winner, here is the list of the final nominations;

http://www.footballfanzineawards.com/nominations-blog.php

Again, huge thanks for all your support, especially the person who nominated the blog in the first place and brought it to the attention of the Football Fans Census (whoever you are let me know, I owe you a pie and a pint)

New Non-League Blog

THE NON-LEAGUE
FOOTBALL BLOG

The Non-League Football Blog was set up by South Shields supporter Phil Thornton and contains features and match reports from the Non-League scene; where I’ve been added to their illustrious team of bloggers. I’ve contributed to the website already and hoping to send more match reports whenever I can, this will include non-league games which may not have been featured on the 100FGC site.
The site is still under construction, but already there’s been plenty of material added to the blog, the address is;
http://nonleague.blogspot.com/

I’ve added a direct link to my reports within my list of ‘Matches Attended 2007-08’