Saturday 15th December 2018
Eastern Senior League Division One South
Dulwich Road, Holland-on-Sea
Admission including Programme: £6.00
Attendance: 60 (estimate)
Feeling the after-effects of my work's Christmas party last night, in an ideal world I did not really want too much of an adventurous day out today. However, wanting to visit a new ground, I did not have much choice, with engineering works making travel westwards difficult yet again, and the forecast of heavy rain in the south-east corner could have led (and did indeed lead) to late postponements, abandonments, and my ideally chosen game at Worthing Town (of the Southern Combination League Division Two) would offer no shelter from the elements. And as the north Essex coast was forecast to avoid the rain ahead of kick-off, and as I did not want to play my plastic pitch joker card unless necessary, I decided to tick off my penultimate ground in the Eastern Senior League Division One South today.
Dulwich Road is about a half hour walk eastwards from Clacton-on-Sea train station, with the Eastcliff Recreation Ground, consisting of a fairly large expanse of football pitches, separating the senior football ground from the coastline. After spending the last three seasons groundsharing FC Clacton's Rush Green Bowl, Holland returned to their home this season, suitably upgraded to host senior football, and a very neat and smart venue it is too, with a fair amount of character and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Visitors enter the ground in one corner, paying admission at a booth, and immediately to the right is the clubhouse building. The bar area is rather small, but a large gazebo has been erected to the left of the entrance booth, with plenty of seating inside and even a heating column is provided. Pitchside from the clubhouse, there are some picnic tables, and then after passing along the length past the players' entrance, there is a metal stand containing four rows of seating, with perspex sides meaning it is possible to watch the game through the side walls, something which I would take advantage of during the match to provide shelter from the elements. There is hard standing around the rest of the ground, with dark green sheeting covering the perimeter fencing. A 20 page colour programme was supplied free with admission and was very decent for the level, easy on the eye, and provided good background to the game without unnecessary waffle.
Holland have had a decent season so far, coming into this game in sixth place, following 10 wins and two draws from their 18 league games, whereas Wormley Rovers, who I saw thrash Lopes Tavares 8-0 at home last month, have been rather inconsistent in their first season in senior football, and were in 14th place in the 19 team division, following four wins and four draws from their 16 league games.
It has to be said that conditions were thoroughly unpleasant this afternoon thanks to Storm Deirdre, with bitterly cold strong winds blowing straight off the sea and across the length of the ground, which would be accompanied by heavy sleety rain during the second half. It would make playing conditions something of a lottery, particularly when the ball was played in the air, with the ball often holding up and going backwards in the air, and even chasing balls along the ground was to prove tricky. Wormley had the strong wind behind them during the first half, and in the sixth minute they took the lead, after an initial shot was blocked, the ball was drilled home across the keeper and into the far inside of the net. Both teams understandably struggled to deal with the conditions, and Holland's best chance came in the 38th minute, when following a low ball through the middle, the ball was struck just wide of the post.
Holland would have been hopeful of turning things around after the break, with the strong wind by now accompanied by driving sleety rain behind them. But Wormley had the first real chance of the second half, when a low ball across the six yard box just evaded a tap in. On 65 minutes though, Holland equalised. A free kick was floated from into the box from deep, and was headed home by Joe Martin. One might have expected Holland to kick on now with the wind in their favour, and they did indeed have a spell on top, until Wormley went back into the lead on 72 minutes. The ball was crossed into the box and was headed towards his own goal by a Holland defender and although the keeper scrambled to keep the ball out of his own net, he just failed to do so. And Wormley made the three points safe six minutes later, their striker taking a touch around the penalty spot before striking the ball powerfully into the top left hand corner. Holland came very close to reducing the arrears virtually straight from the restart, but a curling shot was superbly saved by the keeper low down to his left. The game then rather petered out, and in the end probably all concerned were happy to hear the final whistle and seek refuge - although for me, it meant leaving my shelter in the stand and getting a good soaking and battering along the seafront walking back to the station. Enormous credit should go to Wormley, who won the game playing into the strong wind and rain, and it was just one of those days that the game would be determined by who adapted to the conditions better. Despite the conditions, it was an enjoyable day out, and one I will no doubt look back in years to come as one of more memorable in terms of the extreme weather conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment