Friday 4th September 2009. Central Midlands Football League Supreme Division.The Fieldings (off Huthwaite Road) Sutton in Ashfield
Sutton Town AFC (1) 5 (Brett Peel, Will Tomlinson 2, Kyle Jordan, Mark Shaw)
Pinxton (0) 1 (Jay Cooper)
Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 85 (ish)
The visitors bench, PInxton players I recognise, L to RShaw's assistant manager is David Jervis, who has recently left his role as youth team coach at Mansfield Town, a position he has now had twice, as well as having been a player for the Stags. He lives quite close to me ... not that you care.
With no team sheet forthcoming ... "There will be some along in a few minutes" we were told at 7.30 but as of yet they still haven't arrived (i.e. half an hour after the game), player recognition for tonight's visitors was a bit more testing for me.
Luckily I knew who Jay Cooper, the scorer of their consolation goal was, but the only other Pinxton player I recognised was their number 5, Dave McCarthy, even then he was only familiar to me because he used to play for Worksop Town ... in goal!
The programme, in full colour with 20 glossy pages had loads of information in it that will be very useful to me on my travels in the near future, but didn't actually include even approximate team details for Pinxton.
It did however include a reproduced article from the excellent blog that covers the football travel exploits of Kev Goodman and his dad ... http://ontheroad2009-2010.blogspot.com/
At half time, though Sutton were obviously the bigger and stronger of the two teams, Pinxton had just about held their own and were only behind to a goal in the very last minute of the half, an header looped over their keeper by Brett Pell, using his big battering ram frame to good effect..
But in the second half, as Sutton kept trying to split Pinxton's offside trap, it would be fair to say the visitors contributed to their own downfall.
They simply defended with a back line that was advanced too far up the field, inviting the Snipes to hit balls through them to players running through the channels or to hook the ball over them for their forwards to run on to.
Several times the linesman's flag came to their rescue and several times their keeper did too, including one sublime double save. He couldn't do any more and shouldn't shoulder the blame.
But the scoreline and four second half goals from adopting virtually the tactics detailed above tell their own story.
Shaw's late goal was put away as three Sutton players advanced on the exposed Pinxton keeper, just as well he scored it by the way, because the other two players were better positioned to finish off the move if he'd gone for the unselfish option.
There is ample seating and covered standing at the Fieldings to cater for the size of crowds the Snipes attract at present, but it is very hemmed in and cramped at one end of the ground and on the side where the dug outs are, both are without spectator facilities (other than the hard standing path), that said it is a charming enclosure with loads of character and a sight better than a lot of grounds at the same level of the non league 'Pyramid' system.I can well imagine bigger crowds could cause a bit of friction over parking on the adjacent Fieldings housing development ... some of the visitors to tonight's game weren't overly considerate about where they left their vehicles for the duration.
Of course being the upright citizen that I am, I left my car where it would cause no nuisance to anybody a couple of minutes from the ground and as a reward for my thoughtfulness got soaked on the walk back as the skies did what they've been wont to do for most night time games this season.
"Ladies and gentlemen I give you, nnce a -freakin-gain ... Wet, Wet, Wet!!!"
