Bedworth United 2 v 0 Chasetown

Saturday 17th March 2018

Northern Premier League Division One South

The Oval, Bedworth

Admission: £9.00

Programme: £2.00

Attendance: 193

Match Rating: 3

 

Having booked a National Express ticket from London to Coventry for today, I originally had the choice of four non-league clubs around the city, all playing at home. However, after yet again weather conditions were to wreak havoc on fixture list, the games at Coventry United, Coventry Sphinx and Coventry Copsewood (in order of my preference) were all postponed due to unfit pitches, leaving Coventry Alvis as the only game on, but a long walk from the city centre combined with the club being nine points adrift in their Step 6 division did not sufficiently appeal. So I decided to take a short train ride north, passing close by Coventry United's home ground Butts Park Arena and then Coventry City's Ricoh Arena en route, to watch a match between two teams chasing down a play-off berth, for what would be my first game at a new ground for four weeks – which was also at a Northern Premier League ground in the West Midlands.

The Oval is about a ten minute walk from Bedworth train station, quite close to the town centre and is set on the edge of the Miners Welfare Park. There are two entrances to the ground, via turnstile blocks behind two corners of the ground, both leading to the length where the clubhouse is located, inside a long brick building which would not win any design awards. Along the front, overhang provided cover for standing and a slightly raised path, below which it is possible to stand pitchside. A hot food outlet is positioned on one side of the building. Straddling the half way line on the opposite side is a tall all-seater stand, which offers elevated views but has supporting pillars along the front to obstruct views. To one side of the stand there is a small wooden hut, serving as a tea bar and a as a club shop. Around the rest of the ground there is just hard standing. Generally, it’s a pleasant enough ground, well kept, tall trees provide a nice background to the main stand and there are enough quirks about the place to make it interesting, although the ground does have a rather caged in feel, with high mesh fencing all around the ground, although this is fairly standard at grounds with a plastic pitch. The 32 page programme was rather disappointing, not even including a league table and 14 pages devoted to advertising.

Bedworth came into this game in third place, following 17 wins and six draws from their 33 league games, well on course for a play-off berth and although they have little prospect of overhauling the top two teams, third place may be enough for an automatic promotion berth this season due to yet more league restructuring. Chasetown were in seventh place, following 16 wins and four draws from their 30 league games, but with games in hand on the four teams immediately above them, third place was still very much in their sights.

The Beast from the East's little brother delivered perishingly cold and wintry conditions, with the actual temperature around freezing and wind chill making it feel around -8C, and ahead of kick-off, the weather alternated between blue skies with sunshine and heavy snow storms driven by a strong gusty winds. As the teams came out, they were greeted by a snow storm, making visibility difficult and leaving the pitch covered in snow for about 15 minutes, but the snow stayed away for the remainder of the match. Both teams struggled with the conditions in the early stages, although gradually Bedworth stamped their authority on the game, and they were awarded a penalty on 24 minutes. Luke Rowe ran into a ball down the left wing, drove sideways into the box before being tripped. After plenty of delaying tactics by the keeper, Alex Troje sent the keeper the wrong way, shooting the ball into the right side of the net. The match continued with much the same pattern, the home team on top but with goalscoring chances at a premium and Bedworth retained their slender lead at the break.

After most of the crowd sought refuge in the clubhouse from the freezing temperatures outside at half time, still Bedworth were on top as the visitors surprisingly barely threatened, and after Bedworth did manage to create some more chances, they did double their lead on 73 minutes. Following a corner, the ball was delivered into the area and the ball bounced off a couple of players before Jamie McAteer poked the ball home from very close range. That felt like it would be more than enough to claim the three points, and so it proved as the visitors' first shot on target only came three minutes from time, when a powerful shot was gathered comfortably by the keeper.

So a comfortable home win, with the visitors putting in a disappointing performance, but not too much harm was done to their play-off aspirations and no doubt this was a tricky day to play football with the poor weather conditions throughout.