Bradford Town 2 v 0 Clevedon Town

Saturday 5th October 2019
Western League Premier Division
Trowbridge Road, Bradford-on-Avon
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 228

 

Having missed the last two Western League groundhop events, I decided I definitely wanted to attend this year's event, particularly as it would almost certainly be the last groundhop arranged by the Western League (in conjunction with GroundhopUK) after five seasons, with pretty much all clubs now having been covered. Although four staggered fixtures were arranged for today, the 10.45 fixture was at Portishead Town, a ground that I had already visited just a couple of years ago, and going there would have entailed an extra 75 miles of driving, not to mention having to set off at silly o'clock. So I decided to join the groundhop with this game kicking off at 2pm.

Trowbridge Road is about a ten minute walk from Bradford-on-Avon town centre, with the entrance located in one corner of the ground. Along the length closest to the entrance, there are two metallic stands, one for standing and the other all-seater, alongside each other by the corner flag. Beyond the two stands there is a large wooden shed, with its side walls painted in club colours, and then a further wooden building, painted completely in blue club colours and resembling a cricket pavilion, close to the half way line. There is hard standing along the rest of this length, and a stone wall forms a natural and attractive perimeter boundary behind this length. The hard standing stretches behind both ends and along the remaining length, behind which the grassy area extends, whilst behind the end closest to the entrance, a number of container units are lined up to provide changing rooms and the tea bar. The clubhouse is located a short distance away from the football ground but within the complex, passing alongside a bowling green to reach its entrance. It is quite spacious inside, with bottled beer from a local microbrewery available. The 36 page programme was very decent and well presented, with some interesting articles to read as well as plenty of stats and facts about both clubs and the league.

Both Bradford and Clevedon have made good starts to their league seasons. After top half finishes in each of the last five seasons, Bradford Town came into this game in second place, following six wins from their opening seven league games, the one defeat coming in their last home game against Street. Since resigning from the Southern League in 2015, Clevedon Town have improved their league placing in each season, and came into this game in fourth place in the table, following five wins and a draw from their opening eight league games, but after winning five league games in a row, they lost 1-6 at home to Street in midweek.

On a sunny afternoon, the first half was quite an even affair, with both teams coming close to opening the scoring on several occasions, and on 38 minutes the hosts opened the scoring, Tyson Pollard drilling the ball inside the near post from the edge of the area. Clevedon came close to equalising on the stroke of half time when the ball bobbled around the six yard box, but the eventual shot was deflected over.

In the second half, Clevedon did not look as dangerous as they had in the first half and Bradford looked relatively comfortable in their lead. They thought they had doubled their advantage on 58 minutes when a goalbound header from Dave Thompson was blocked and cleared by a defender on the line according to the officals, despite loud appeals from the Bradford players that it had gone over the line. But on 68 minutes, they were awarded a penalty. Following a cross from the left, a shot was blocked by a hand, with the referee awarding a penalty. Pollard struck the ball into the bottom left corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. The home side had further chances to extend their lead, but it mattered little as two goals would prove more than enough to claim the 3 points which maintained their second place in the table, whilst Clevedon dropped a place to fifth. And as usually happens on these groundhopping days, the vast majority of those present raced for the exit right on the final whistle to get in their cars or coach and head for the next game, which on this occasion would be 15 miles away at Devizes.