Pre-season Friendly
Westwood Road, St Ives
Admission: £5.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 175 (rough estimate)
Today I would belatedly make a start on my 2022/23 season of groundhopping, after a bout of mild Covid thwarted my planned trip to Banbury last Saturday, and with no local friendlies being played local to me in midweek, nor feeling the inclination to travel quite a long way for revisits, or well over 100 miles for new grounds (and not feeling inclined to spend nigh on £100 night for a last minute hotel booking). I wanted to make today a decent day out, and although a visit to this venue with its plastic pitch was in some ways wasted on a hot summer’s day, I was sufficiently tempted by the local brewery holding a beer festival at the ground today, along with a hog roast being available.
Having arrived at Huntingdon, the closest train station to St Ives, I then caught a bus for about a half hour journey to the nearest bus stop to Westwood Park, which was then about a ten minute walk away. Plenty of smart and bright signage guided visitors along the path to and around the ground to reach the turnstile block located along one length. The ground has plenty of rustic charm about it, with plenty of old fashioned stands and buildings around. Straddling the half way line on one side is a white clubhouse building, with overhang to the front covering some terracing and a small section of plastic seats, along with some comfy chairs placed along the top row, and with a tea bar window in the back wall on one side, and a door to the clubhouse to the other. Inside is a fairly roomy if dark bar area, and as well as a standard bar area, the casks of ale for the beer festival were located in here today offering a choice of ten ales from the local Papworth Brewery. Both of my choices were very enjoyable - Mad Jack, a chestnut brown bitter, and Fen Skater, a golden pale ale. A separate room usually hosts the hospitality area, but today it was where tokens for the ale and the hog roast could be purchased. To the side of the clubhouse there is a quite a large grassy area behind the pitchside path, with a few picnic tables available, and a gazebo was erected today from where hog roast baps and more traditional fare of burgers, hot dogs and bacon rolls were available. There is just hard standing behind both ends, whilst along the other length, there are three stands. Straddling the half way line is an old fashioned stand with a brick base and three rows of seats, to one side there is a rather charming long and narrow stand made of wood and corrugated sheets covering a flat standing area, whilst to the other side is a modern metallic identikit all-seater stand. These days, St Ives Town only produce e-programmes for their competitive fixtures, and so it was little surprise that nothing was produced for today’s game.
St Ives had another steady season at Step 3 level last season, their sixth consecutive season at step 3, finishing in 14th place in the 21 club Southern League Premier Central Division, although the league table suggests that defence was their Achilles heel, conceding 90 goals in their 40 league games, the second highest in the division. After three seasons in the National League, King's Lynn Town were relegated to the National League North at the end of last season, finishing third bottom in 21st place, nine points adrift of safety.
On a very warm and sunny afternoon, King's Lynn started the game impressively, barely lifting their foot off the gas throughout the first half. In just the second minute, a ball over the top sent Michael Clunan down the right, and he passed low to Gold Omotayo in a central position, but a defender did well to smother the ball away with an excellently timed tackle. But on 7 minutes, the visitors did open the scoring. After Theo Widdrington, son of manager Tommy, had won a free kick, he fired it into the net, perhaps catching the keeper slightly off guard, as he could only palm the ball into the inside of the side netting. And King's Lynn scored their second two minutes later, when Clunan's corner was met by the head of Omotayo, sending the ball into the top right hand corner of the net. St Ives mounted their first meaningful attack on the quarter hour mark, when a header went out for a corner, but that was a rare foray forward for the hosts, and immediately following a drinks break, King's Lynn scored their third. Widdrington sent another ball over the top for Clunan to run onto, and he lashed home a beautiful half volley shot across the keeper and inside the far post. St Ives did come back into the game as half time approached, creating a couple of half chances before they did pull a goal back in added on time at the end of the first half, when the ball was forced home following a goalmouth scramble.
The second half was generally a much quieter affair, perhaps inevitably as multiple substitutions were made, although it remained the visitors who looked more likely to score. On the hour mark, one of the triallists poked the ball against the left hand post, and on 78 minutes, another triallist dinked the ball over the keeper but it dropped just wide of the left hand post, whilst in the 89th minute, Hudson's powerful strike was excellently parried by the keeper, and follow up shots couldn't force the ball home.
This was a most enjoyable day to start my groundhopping adventures of 2022/23, with an entertaining game to watch, complemented by the beer festival and hog roast, which was excellently organised and added some real feel-good factor about the place in the warm summer sunshine.
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