Newport (IOW) 4 v 2 Millbrook

Saturday 16th October 2021, Kick-off 15.00
Wessex League Division One
Smallbrook Stadium, Ryde
Admission: £6.00

Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 133

As sad as it was to see Newport (IOW) obliged to vacate their St Georges Park home at the end of the 2019 season, it did - eventually - open up the opportunity for me to visit a new ground for senior football on the Isle of Wight, which always makes for a cracking day out.

After sharing at East Cowes Victoria Athletic's home Beatrice Avenue for the last two (unfinished) seasons, Newport have set up home at the Smallbrook Stadium, on the outskirts of Ryde, for this season. Although predominantly hosting speedway meetings, Smallbrook Stadium was the home of former Wessex League outfit Ryde Sports from 1990 until 1997, when the club folded, and has been hosting an increasing number of home fixtures of Ryde Saints, of the Isle of Wight Saturday League, over the last few years. After a ten minute flight across The Solent on the hovercraft, then stopping off for a lunchtime pint in The Marine pub opposite the Hovertravel terminal, I then embarked on the 40 minute rather hilly walk up through the centre of Ryde, through its southern suburbs and into the countryside beyond. It is certainly not a ground designed for the non car user in mind, with public transports not passing near and the last half a mile or so walk is along a windy country road without a footpath, and so it is just as well there is a fairly large car park available behind one one end of the ground, where the entrance is. It is nice to see that Newport arrange a dedicated matchday bus service from St Georges Park to Smallbrook Stadium for £4 return, although apparently low usage threatens the future of the service. After paying admission at a kiosk, an excellent 32 page programme packed with information to read was available from a table just inside the ground, along with raffle tickets and some club merchandise, and a path then leads around the bend along the speedway track perimeter fence towards a tea hut in the corner, which offered an impressive range of decent quality hot and cold refreshments. Some tables and chairs are placed on a patio area in front of the hut, whilst pitchside of the path in front of the hut is The Royal Box - which seems to be reserved for wheelchair users at speedway meetings and offers a relatively decent elevated view of the action - more ideal for speedway, as riders enter the corner, than for football spectators, although it remained a popular place to watch the action from today. A long stand with three rows inside - save for a small area in the middle - stretches most of the length, and has some welcome elevation to provide a reasonable view of the action, given that there is some distance to the pitch, with shallow terracing below the seating, then a fair sized grass bank, and then the speedway track. The far end, or bend, as well as along the opposite length, are completely inaccessible. The path around the tea hut, and the grass banks behind it, make for a popular vantage point, as does the wooden balcony outside the clubhouse next to the entrance. Whilst it makes a nice change to have a PA system fully used at this level, the variety of music was limited to some rather obscure fifties tunes throughout. Although Smallbrook is far from ideal for watching football at, it is pleasantly quirky, rural and peaceful, offers good facilities around the ground and serves its purpose well enough as a temporary stop gap for Newport. Newport are hoping to move into their own ground in time for next season, and received some more certainty in that regard yesterday when the geographically better option of developing part of the Seaclose Recreation Ground close to the centre of Newport was ruled out by the authorities, leaving the club with their original proposal of developing land about three miles north eastwards between Newport and Wootton Bridge.

Newport have made a decent start to their fourth season in Division One, coming into this game in third place in the table, following seven wins and a draw from their opening ten league games. They have only picked up a point from their last two games though, but there were plenty of goals in those games, drawing 4-4 at New Milton Town last Saturday, twice coming from two goals down to claim a point at the death, following a 5-2 defeat at today's visitors the previous Saturday. Millbrook were formed from a merger of senior club Bush Hill and junior club Oakwood Youth, and as Bush Hill were elevated from the Hampshire Premier League Senior Division in the summer, having been there or thereabouts at the top of that division for several seasons. They have made a solid start to their first season within the National League System, coming into this game in tenth place, following five wins and five defeats from their opening ten league games, and in their last game put six goals past Ash United without reply.

On a mild and sunny afternoon, the first half turned out to be a rather one sided affair, with Newport cutting through a rather shaky defence almost at will. They opened the scoring on 8 minutes when Jordan Browne turned and struck the ball low across the keeper and into the bottom far corner. They doubled their lead on 24 minutes, when a ball over the top found the run of Connor Kelly, and he cooly lobbed the ball over the keeper and into the unguarded net. Joe Craig made it three on 32 minutes, tapping the ball home from close range following good work from a team mate to beat a defender out wide before dinking the ball into the unmarked Craig. Millbrook had a great chance to get back in the game on 34 minutes, when a free kick was played in from the right and just evaded a meaningful connection at the far post, instead drifting just wide of the far post. And it seemed like the game was put to bed two minutes later when Newport were awarded a penalty for a trip in the box, which Kelly struck low into the right side of the goal, sending the keeper the wrong way. 4-0 was how it remained at half time, and it seemed that all Millbrook had left to play for in the second half was pride.

And indeed, Millbrook were much improved after the break, perhaps helped by a lowering of intensity in the hosts' play, and they pulled a goal back on 49 minutes when Mark Barker showed good strength to shrug off a challenge by a Newport player wide on the right before running towards goal before flighting a shot which the keeper got a touch to, but the ball carried over the line. Newport did have some great chances to restore their four goal lead, but Millbrook scored their second on 76 minutes when a free kick was beautifully fired into the top left corner. In the end, Newport saw the game out fairly comfortably for a win they certainly deserved and to gain some revenge for their 5-2 defeat to Millbrook three weeks ago, but credit to Millbrook for a decent second half performance despite a four goal deficit at the break.

After the game, a walk back to the Hovercraft terminal was interrupted by picking up a few beers of various Isle of Wight breweries from the Co-op, then stopping off for a couple of pints whilst watching Brentford against Chelsea in the very friendly and welcoming King Lud pub on the Esplanade, before heading back to the mainland following a most enjoyable day out, which enabled me to recomplete my visits of all grounds in the Wessex League.