Worsbrough Bridge Athletic 0-3 Skegness Town, Saturday 28th September 2019

Worsbrough Bridge Athletic 0-3 Skegness Town, Northern Counties East League Division 1 (att. 62)

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A distinct disadvantage of gaining promotion to the upper echelons of the EFL is that your team is suddenly forced to play home matches on a Sunday – either for TV (Brentford) or for the police (Dirty Leeds).  Thus, for a second home match in a row, Barnsley’s game was switched to a Sunday lunchtime.  Not handy if you live in London and there’s limited/expensive trains up.  So Reedy and I went up Satdy (cheaper trains) giving me an opportunity to see another local non-league team, in this case Worsbrough Bridge, AKA The Briggers.

The view from Sheffield Road.

I must have passed their stadium dozens of times, as it’s on the main road as you come into Barnsley from the direction of Sheffield or the motorway south of Barnsley.  Deep at the bottom of the valley and bordered by the River Dove on one side, the ground normally only gets mentioned for its intermittent flooding.  Mind, the last home game was re-arranged to allow for cricket.  I had high hopes for a decent pitch.  It most certainly wasn’t a decent pitch, lumps all over it, not to mention the massive slope from one end to the other.  Not good for tracking back.

Action in front of the Main Stand.

I was dropped off in Worsbrough (thanks Mrs Reed!) to meet up with former Londontyke Nozzer, retired to the area.  And after watching the end of Liverpool’s narrow beating of the Blunts (Sheffield United) we made our way to the ground, a 10 minute walk.  And whilst one could watch the game from the road for free, why be churlish?  £5 in (for adults) and programme purchased  (£1, not even a league table in there).  As well as a wee, I’d recommend the burgers.  Not bad for something pulled out of hot water – or was I exceptionally hungry?  Otherwise, the clubhouse was a poor affair, small and no beers on tap (but they had cans).  Most of the building was given over to the changing rooms.

The Main Stand with clubhouse (left).

On the same side of the pitch is a small seated stand, holding 175 fans (I read).  Pretty cute too, with a decorative fascia.  Opposite was a small covered bit of terracing, with crush barriers (or ‘leaning barriers’ for the lack of crowds Worsbrough get).  To the left of this was the rest of the cricket pitch while to the right was Sheffield Road.  Spectators were in three clumps, sitting down, leaning on the barrier of the clubhouse, or on the terrace.  With the rain intermittently lashing down, cover was the order of the day, and we took our place on the terrace along with 10 or so others.

Covered standing.

Today’s visitors were the league leaders Skegness Town, and while not looking particularly good, it took them only 10 minutes to take the lead and their victory was never in doubt.  The ref gave a dubious free kick to Skegness and from 25 yards out they found the bottom corner.  The home keeper couldn’t quite get across, but he seemed the pick of the Briggers herd from then on, despite being new (there’s nothing like shouting at your left back ‘Oi, left back!’ cos you don’t know his name).

The Main Stand

Thereafter, there was only one winner and it was only a matter of how many.  The Briggers held out till just after the hour (was it a header on the backpost?) before sealing it when a forward ran clean through.  Given this was the 10^th level of English football, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised at the lack of ability on show.  Both sides seemed full of big lad cloggers to me, with little pace or skill on show.  Still, who doesn’t love a game of football and the chance to shout randomly at officials and opposition players?

The Damage: £5 ent
£2.50 burger
£1 prog
£2.20 bus
= £10.70

The Tunes:
Two Suns (Bat for Lashes)

It's a sign!  Of what?  Sun and rain.

Skegness team minibus.

Players and officials come out.

The view from behind the goal.