Spalding United 1 v Frickley Athletic 3 - EvoStik NPL South

Tuesday 10th April 2018
EvoStik Northern Premier League (South)
at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field
Spalding United (1) 1
Jonny Lockie 28
Frickley Athletic (0) 3
Tom Dugdale 56 pen
Sam Liversidge 61
Jacob Hazel 90+3
Admission £9. Programme £2.50 (double issue)
Attendance 83

Spalding United FC and the Chatterton Water Tower

Until 1954 Spalding United's playing enclosure was called the Black Swan Ground, when it was renamed after Sir Halley Stewart: a businessman, journalist, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician who sat as a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Spalding from 1887 to 1895.

Hertfordshire born Stewart, who among many other positions he had held, had also been a newspaper editor in Hastings, a preacher in Islington, North London and an MP for Greenock in Scotland. Obviously the old lad got about a bit .before he passed away at the ripe old age off 99, in 1937 after suffering a from a bout of influenza that developed into bronchitis.

Rogues gallery

Back in March, the original fixture at Spalding between these two teams, was prematurely halted and subsequently abandoned, with Frickley leading 0-2, when the Tulips young striker Jonny Lockie suffered a neck injury. Thankfully, having been taken to hospital, Lockie's ailment proved to be nothing more serious than bad bruising... not that you'd ever trivialise such a painful injury; but in the heat of the moment, when on the spot decisions have to be made, everything else is of a secondary importance when measured against the welfare of an injured player, so the referee was 100% correct to call time early on that particular occasion.

Whether the Football Association's ruling that the original result couldn't stand, was wrong or right, given how much time had actually elapsed on that fateful night, before the game was called off, is a matter for conjecture, but Spencer Fearn's side won tonight's re-run of the game by a two goal margin as well, so both morally and technically, all's well that ends well and Spalding's injured player was back in action tonight, which all other consideration's aside is surely the main thing.

When we arrived at the ground tonight, the home club were still working on the pitch and one of their staff was sweeping excess water away from the Kings Road end of the pitch. 

So credit where it is due, they had done well to get the game on, even though the underfoot conditions proved to be very challenging in places and reminded me of the old adage, that says a good jockey can handle a bit of sludge. 

It would be fair to say that the home side mastered the mud better than Frickley in the first half, as the visitors got bogged down and needed a tow... or at least a kick up the backside at half time, before being sent out early for a second warm up session. These sort of things are character building in the long run... and in the short term they worked wonders tonight too.
Spalding created the first opening when Matt Varley launched a long throw into the visitors area, that Teddy Bloor did well to head clear, despite being pushed in the back.
Tom Dugdale pushed forward for Frickley, but when his effort rebounded to Nicky Darker on the edge of the box, he struck the ball with the power of David Beckham, but the accuracy of Posh Spice Beckham and the less said the better.

Michael Duggan scooped away a trademark Darker dipping throw away out of his six yard box and Varley provided the finishing touches to clear the ball away.
Frickley were learning the hard way that they were attacking towards the muddiest part of the ground as even the shortest of passes weren't reaching their intended targets, while Spalding were getting in amongst their visitors and testing their defence. But they had to change ends at half time, so it would've been best practice for the home side to make good of their advantage before the interval.
James Hugo's free kick, flicked off of the head of Danny Burns in the Frickley wall, but Jake Turner saved easily and moments later, Lockie couldn't keep his header on target from Luke White's cross.

But in the 28th minute, Spalding took the lead when Cenk Acar delivered the ball in from the left to meet Lockie's run through the middle of Frickley's defence and he touched the ball past Turner despite the close attentions of Jameel Ible. I think it would be fair to say that a goal for the home side had been on the cards for a while.
Spalding almost doubled their lead when white passed sideways to Varley who smashed his shot just over the bar from twenty five yards out. And Acar almost intercepted a short goal kick, but Richard Patterson recovered in the nick of time and thwarted the lively Tulips wide man. There is probably a time and place for short goal kicks, but a mud-bath of a pitch in deepest Lincolnshire, on a damp midweek night, definitely isn't one of them.

'Twas indeed a horses for courses situation and even perhaps an occasion where nobody would bat an eyelid if you employed a big target man up front and resorted to hoofing the ball high into the night sky towards him.
Ible and Burns were keeping Spalding at bay as they pushed to build on their lead before the break, with Hugo in particular posing a threat with a number of balls into the visitors area, one of which Burns had to clear off of his line, while towards half time the Tulips closed ranks as Darker delivered two long throw ins towards their six yard box, one from each flank, with Patterson going to ground from the second one as he.... was blatantly pushed/had his route blocked off fairly* (delete according to which camp you were in) while Duggan gathered the ball.
HT: 1-0
The referee blew for half time after 43 minutes.
Whoops! I bet that was really embarrassing for him, so I won't even mention it ;-)

The Frickley side finally got to grips with things in the second half as they attacked the less squelchy end of the pitch, to such an extent that it was almost as if they had been kidding their hosts and luring them into a false sense of security during a less than impressive opening forty five minutes.
Tom Dugdale was picking the heads off of the Tulips and stamping on their bulbs as he flew at them  from all angles and straight from the restart he surge forward and picked out Reece McGinley to his right, who skipped past a challenge and saw his on target effort deflected wide. Sam Liversidge took the resulting corner and found Ible with a dipping delivery, but the visitors captain headed over.
George Milner played the ball our wide to Dugdale, who burst into the left hand side of the home side's area; but as he was about to shoot Neal Spafford tripped him with either a badly timed tackle or a very well executed foul.

Either way, even though the referee can't tell the time, he knows a stonewall penalty when he sees one.... and Dugdale got up and took the spot kick himself, planting the ball emphatically past Duggan to level things up.
Gary King whipped a ball into the Frickley area that Liversidge laid down caught between his feet as a goalmouth scramble broke out around him... that's a cute trick and no mistake.
For an encore Liversidge moved quickly from box to box and glanced an header past Duggan from Dugdlae's cross to put Frickley ahead.
Turner did well to deny both King and Varley, even winning himself generous acclaim from a nearby Spalding fan, while at the other end Duggan held onto Liversidge’s rasping shot, before Jacob Hazel had a penalty appeal ignored, much to his disbelief (and mine). I think that the Mickey Mouse on the referee's watch had waved that one away.

Sadly, play was stopped so that Teddy Bloor, who was writhing on the floor in agony could receive treatment. He was subsequently withdrawn from the action and though he's a sturdy lad, it looks as though he'll be sitting games out for a while. Get well soon Borington! But get your feet up until you feel good and ready to return to action.
Turner was called on to deal with a low skidding free kick by Hugo and then moments later had to field a header back from his team mate Cameron Hough, who had diverted a knock from Varley back to him in the gooey mess that his area was turning in to.

Spalding sent on Danny Brooks late in the game, who certainly looked the part from dead ball situations, but with the game running overtime, Hazel calmly took down a long clearance, around thirty yards from goal out on the right and lobbed it over Duggan to put any ideas of a late comeback beyond Spalding's reach. Game over!

FT: Spalding United 1 v Frickley Athletic 3

Both sides had done their level best to put on a decent showing on a very sticky wicket, but in the final analysis, Frickley had that bit more fire in their bellies, to battle on until the very end and keep their play off hopes alive..