Melton Town 2 v Grantham Town 1 - PSF

Friday 6th July 2018
Pre Season Friendly
at SignRight Park, Melton Sports Village
Melton Town (1) 2
Liam Fray 16
Ash Palfreyman 82 pen
Grantham Town (0) 1
Tiaggo Nassunculo 80
Admission £5.
Attendance 100+
Plus approximately 1,637 flesh eating insects
Photo gallery: click HERE

My plans for the weekend include visits to three grounds that I've never been to before, namely: Melton Town's SignRight Park tonight, the inaugural game at Cleethorpes Town's new facility at Linden Park tomorrow lunchtime (kick off moved forward to 12.30PM because England's much anticipated televised World Cup game v Sweden starts at 3PM), and a Sunday trip 'oop north to Blackwell Meadows, the home of Darlington FC.
My 'weekender' will encompass a total round trip of around 400 miles, give or take a few hundred yards or so, which might possibly delay any opportunity to update this here ' long winded, self indulgent, bullshit blog, with added football content' with anything resembling any kind of emergency or immediacy, in my usual prolific way.

But, just like that tortoise who is fabled to have beaten an impetuous hare in a much recycled fable of yore... I'll get there eventually, and I apologise profusely to anybody who has been squirming on the edge of their seat in a state of agitated excitement, awaiting this 'eagerly awaited' tome.
The host club came into being as recently as 2004, as Melton Mowbray and changed their name to Melton Town in 2016 when they entered the United Counties League Division One, having progressed through the Leicester & District League and Leicestershire Senior League.

A decent number of spectators descended on the Melton Sports Village for this game, given that the alternative was the temptation of a night in watching the Belgium v Brazil, World Cup quarter final on the telly, in a competition that has thrown up some intriguing results thus far.
In case you've been hidden away in a sound-proofed bunker, during the interim and haven't heard yet, Belgium won that one and will now face France for a place in next Sunday's final.

Melton Sports Village is fairly easy to find, situated on the Burton Road as you head away from the town centre, passing Melton Mowbray railway station, just a few hundred yards from tonight's destination, en route, which will immediately grab the attention of a number of my friends amongst the football travelling community. who either don't drive, or prefer to 'let the train take the strain' as they carry out their never ending quest to travel to each and every corner of the known universe in pursuit of the beautiful game.

Russ was present tonight, that's he of the Wycombe Wanderer blog, who seems to get just about everywhere... and it is always a pleasure to run into whenever our paths cross. Doubtless, he will have typed up a lengthy epistle before I even went to bed tonight, he must write in his sleep to keep on top of things at the rate he does sometimes.

Tonight's visitors: Grantham Town, have recently employed the vastly experienced Ian Culverhouse as their manager. His most recent employment within the game, was as the manager of Kings Lynn Town, but prior to that, Culverhouse had a playing career spanning eighteen years, where he turned out for: Tottenham Hotspur, Norwich City, Swindon Town and Brighton & Hove Albion, as well as making a solitary appearance for Kingstonian FC; after which he was subsequently a youth team coach at Barnet, Leyton Orient and Wycombe Wanderers, before serving as an assistant manager, to Paul Lambert, at Colchester United, Norwich City and Aston Villa.

The first impression you get upon entering Melton's ground, is how welcoming and friendy all of the people connected to the club are. There is a clubhouse, shared with the rugby club, but plenty of food and liquid refreshment is available within the ground itself too, from within one of the club buildings that a look resplendent, painted in a fetching shade of pillar box red,
The pitch (a grass one) is railed off around all four sides, has six floodlight towers and there is a one hundred and thirty five seater covered stand alongside one touchline. And having tried it out for myself, I can vouch for the fact that the seats are very roomy and generous enough for the most amply proportioned of posteriors... I know this because I was sat near somebody with a really fat arse, before you draw any other kind of conclusion.

Grantham play in the Premier Division of the EvoStik NPL, but tonight was never likely to be the mismatch that some might have anticipated, given the respective levels that both sides ply their trade at, because the two sides were a mix of first team players and promising youngsters.
Incidentally, I learned while talking to lady serving refreshments, whose husband I had just purchased a raffle ticket from, that Melton Town's youth team train at nearby Brooksby Melton College on Wednesday night's, where the (three in a row) championship winning Under 18 academy lads from Mansfield Town are based.

There was no programme issued for this pre-season game, but somebody gave me a copy of one from towards the back end of last season, which was stuffed with information about the 'Pork Pies', a club nickname derived from the town's most famous import.
With the 'Gingerbreads' in town, a mouthwatering, if ever so slightly fattening, feast of football was on the menu tonight.
Melton didn't wear any shirt numbers tonight, which made player recognition slightly difficult... and, in the main, the Grantham players I knew, were merely spectating, so please make allowances for any inaccuracies, discrepancies and name omissions from hereon in.

Grantham seemed to favour a patient approach to the game, passing the ball around at will, but whenever the opportunity arose, it was actually the home side who looked the most dangerous in the final third, nibbling away with the same kind of annoying persistence employed by the swarm of flesh eating insects that had descended over the ground tonight and they took the lead in the sixteenth minute... that's Melton, not the midges... when Liam Fray got onto the end of a low right wing cross in the sixteenth minute and opened the scoring via the outstretched hand of the visitors keeper, from just outside the six yard box.

The Gingerbreads manager, wanting to give as many players as possible some game time, made five substitutions as early as the thirtieth minute... and the infusion of fresh blood saw his side pick up the tempo and create a well worked passing move that led to a disallowed goal just before half time.

The Grantham number nine went close twice, shooting narrowly wide of the left hand upright with an angled shot across the face of the 'Pork Pies' goal, after he'd muscled his way past a challenge, before missing a sitter from four yards out with the goal at his mercy. From the resulting goal kick, Melton went straight up the other end and went close to doubling their lead.

Tiago Nassunculo, one of a crop of the youngsters that Grantham fielded, was proving to be a proper handful for the home side and having seen one goal bound shot smothered by the Melton keeper, he finally netted the equaliser, with a downwards, close range, back post header with ten minutes left to go.

But the Leicestershire side were back in front within two minutes, when the referee spotted a trip inside a crowded Grantham area, as Melton pushed for a winner and awarded a penalty, from which Ash Palfreyman crashed the ball just inside the left hand upright, to restore the lead, that his side held onto until the final whistle this time round.

FT: Melton  Town 2 v Grantham Town 1

By way of a massive coincidence, two of the teams that I have visited for the first time ever this pre-season: Ingles FC and Melton Town, have been paired against each other in the FA Vase First Qualifying Round... and will meet at SignRight Park on Saturday September 1st.