Spartan South Midlands League Division One
Pixmore Playing Fields, Letchworth Garden City
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 64
Having this week off work, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit some new grounds which would not normally be within range for me after work, starting with this game in northern Hertfordshire this evening.
The Pixmore Playing Fields are just under half an hour's walk from Letchworth Garden City train station, and located a short distance behind the County Ground, home of the Hertfordshire FA. A short lane passed by a leisure centre, leading to the Pixmore Playing Fields, with the home ground of the town’s rugby club adjacent. Access to the football ground is gained by paying the admission fee at a wooden hut by the entrance gate, with an 8 page programme available for purchase, a well designed and produced publication printed in colour on glossy paper that sufficiently covered the essentials. Parking is available just inside the gate, and straddling the half way line is a breeze block stand containing three rows of seats. Behind the stand is a smart cream coloured clubhouse building with a pitched roof, and a modern and spacious bar area inside. There is hard standing along the end closest to the entrance and along both lengths, with just grass to stand on behind the remaining goal. It is all perfectly adequate to host step 6 football, and presumably adding furniture would not be a problem should the club be required to do so in the future. The location is peaceful and rural, and with a secondary pitch located behind one length, and junior playing fields behind the clubhouse, it is certainly evident that the club's youth teams are at least as important to the club as the senior first team.
Both clubs playing this evening are new to the Spartan South Midlands League this season. After consistently being there or thereabouts at the top of the Hertfordshire Senior County League for many seasons, Letchworth Garden City Eagles finally achieved promotion into Step 6 football for this season. They have had a mixed start in their new surroundings, winning two and losing three of their opening five league games, with two of those defeats coming in the last two games. Irchester United have spent their last 40 seasons in the United Counties League, before being laterally transferred in the summer, as the Spartan South Midlands League's footprint was extended northwards to cover Northamptonshire. And they have found their new surroundings far from plain sailing so far, picking up just three points, a win, from their opening six league games, losing their last four. It's quite obvious where their biggest problem lies, having shipped 27 goals in their six games, and have twice conceded seven. They have played all of their games away from home so far, and so will undoubtedly hope for an upturn in fortunes when they play back at home.
As the two teams came out to kick-off, it was rather surprising that the referee was happy to let play commence with a clash of kit colours, with Letchworth sporting a navy and black striped shirt whilst Irchester wore an all purple kit. Letchworth almost got off to the perfect start with barely a minute on the clock, when a cross took a deflection off a defender to send the ball only just off target for a corner. Letchworth looked the better side during the first half and did most of the attacking, and they took the lead on the half hour mark, after a free kick from the left wing was delivered into the box, and was headed down towards Nicolay Rusev, who let the ball bounce before striking it beyond the keeper's dive and inside the left hand post. On 36 minutes, Letchworth saw a low curling shot bounce off the outside of the near post.
Thankfully, the kit clash problem was solved at half time as Letchworth came out in yellow shirts, and again it was Letchworth who dominated possession and chances, but Irchester also had their moments on the break, and there was a feeling that if Letchworth didn't score another, it would not have been at all surprising had Irchester claimed a share of the points. Letchworth really should have scored that second goal on 54 minutes when a fizzing cross the the right evaded three Letchworth forwards from close range, and shortly afterwards, a powerful close range shot forced an excellent reflex save by the Irchester keeper above his head to tip the ball over the bar. Apart from that, Letchworth had plenty of shots on goal, but mostly rather speculative from outside the area which were off target. But in the end, one goal was enough for Letchworth, for the three points they deserved on the balance of play. But credit to Irchester as they did enough to suggest an upturn in fortunes should come sooner rather than later, not looking an outfit that had shipped so many goals previously.
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