Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division
Creasey Park, Dunstable
Admission : £8.00 (£4.00 for EFL Season Ticket holders)
Programme: £2.00, or online
Attendance: 130
Although my selection of pre-season friendlies proved to be entertaining and enjoyable enough, it was a relief when today arrived, the first Saturday of competitive football in England. A combination of where I needed to be in the evening, the vagaries of train travel at weekends, and Dunstable Town offering half price entry to all EFL season ticket holders - of which I am now - meant that this would be my choice to kick off my season's groundhopping. It promised to be an interesting match between clubs that were two steps apart last season.
To get to Creasey Park, I took the train to Luton, and then caught a bus, along a busway linking Luton and Dunstable, passing immediately alongside the back of Kenilworth Road's main stand, and finally a five minute walk from the nearest bus stop. The football ground has been completely rebuilt since the days legends of the game such as Jeff Astle, George Best (albeit very briefly), Kerry Dixon and Barry Fry plied their trade there and is now shared with Southern League outfit AFC Dunstable, and is part of quite a large sporting and community facility run by the town council. After passing through quite a large car park, the entrance turnstiles block is located in one corner of the football ground. Immediately inside, there is a small tent offering club merchandise and 50-50 tickets, and stretching along most of the length is a long building with a wooden panelled front, and a modern bar area and catering outlet inside, as well as the changing rooms. There is plenty of space on a tarmac area between the clubhouse and the pitch, some of which is taken up with picnic tables. On the opposite side, there is one of the larger varieties of the modern metallic all-seater stand, a smaller one with steps to stand on behind the goal closest to the entrance, whilst a very small stand covering a couple of steps is located immediately behind the other goal, either side of which is a steep grass bank which, at this time of the season, made for a pleasant place to sit on and watch the action. Although there is certainly a high proportion of modern identikit facilities here , and to all intents in purposes is a new-build ground with the previous facilities having been bulldozed around 2010, it is a surprisingly pleasant place to watch football at, being neat, tidy, spacious, with a quiet and fairly green location, enclosed by smart wooden fencing. Dunstable Town have happily bucked the trend of moving over to online programmes only. After last season having their full programme available online only, but with a printed 4 page matchday publication also available, they have gone back to producing a full printed programme this season, and it is also posted online too. This really is the best of all worlds. Although the online version focused on today's game, the 36 page printed version was a double issue, also covering Tuesday's home game, with four additional page looking at Baldock Town. It was a decent programme, colourful and with plenty of reading material, and stats pages that were obviously rather bare on this, the opening day of the season.
Dunstable Town finished bottom of the Southern League Division One Central Division last season, three points adrift of safety, whereas Broadfields United earned promotion from Division One of the Spartan South Midlands League, 16 points adrift of champions Harefield United, but 20 points ahead of third placed Winslow United.
On a cloudy but warm and muggy afternoon, the game started off quite evenly, but after both teams traded a couple of decent chances, the visitors took the lead on 31 minutes. After the Dunstable defenders and keeper could not deal with the ball deep inside their own penalty area, it was eventually poked home by Rex Kimona. Again, both teams had another couple of good chances, but at half time, it was the visitors who held a one goal lead.
Broadfields would score the all important next goal, on 54 minutes, with a wonderful goal by Jordan Goode-Keeley, who curled the ball beautifully from 25 yards into the top right corner. The result was really never in doubt after that as the visitors controlled the game and the Dunstable players cut ever more forlorn figures. And Broadfields did make absolutely sure of the three points on 75 minutes, when Charlie Barton ran through on goal, and although a defender did manage to get back, Barton showed good composure to firing the ball low past the keeper. To further add to Dunstable's travails, they had a player sent to the sin bin - the first time I have witnessed that - and a few long range shots was as close as they came to getting on the scoresheet.
So a disappointing return to Step 5 football for Dunstable Town after 6 seasons away, and they will have to improve massively on today's performance if they are to be in contention for an immediate return to the Southern League. As for Broadfields United, this was a dream debut in their first ever season at Step 5 level, carrying on the momentum from last season.
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