Tuesday 30 September 2008

Tuesday 30th September 2008

Arnold Town v Parkgate FC -- NCEL Premier Division


With Arnold's new state of the art facility "Eagle Valley" not quite ready, the Eagles played this "home" game at Gedling Miners Welfare Ground on Mapperley Plains.
A wild, windy and wet night, but very colourful - the teams lined up with Arnold in all purple and their visitors Parkgate in all orange..!!

"Evening Post" Brian was at the ground - did he want to talk about football ? No.. just the fact he had to PAY for his coffee !!

The game was fairly even to start with, and the Referee was having a decent game - the Parkgate Manager didn't agree though. He was lipping from the first minute -- I have been to hundreds of games, but this vile, loud, abusive, foul-mouthed nasty piece of work was probably in the top ten of the worst I have actually shared a football ground with. He was chipping away at the ref, his assistants as well as the Arnold Management..... his antics actually caused one man and his young son to move from their seats, and one lady asked him to moderate his language because he was upsetting her. The Referee warned him in the 19th minute, and he seemed to calm down a little. The Respect campaign seems to have had an some impact on players, but some Managers are in need of a little work yet!! ( have to admit though, the WKD side of me found him quite amusing!!)


As for the football, Broster in the Arnold goal saw the ball graze the outside of his far post in the 11th minute, but it was the home team who opened the scoring on 17. Brewster made a terrific run before slotting the ball to Mitchell - the former Mansfield striker turned and fired past the Parkgate keeper from 12 yards.

Parkgate took the game to Arnold and caused one or two heart-stopping moments, but Clarke and Hudson were giving inspired performances at the heart of the Eagles defence and the half ended 1-0.

Mitchell doubled the Arnold advantage just 35 seconds into the second period. As the ball was played forward, it bounced off Mitchell's marker straight into his path and he controlled well before curling the ball round the keeper and into the net.

Mitchell completed his hat-trick on 65. Carruthers and Mitchell both looked well offside as they ran onto a through ball, but as Carruthers o shoot, Mitchell nicked the ball off his boot and fired it home.... Carruthers looked a bit miffed to say the least!!


The Parkgate no. 9 shirt was shown a 2nd yellow and red soon after, and straight away they reduce their arrears, Spooner sliding in at the far post.


With 5 to go, Arnold put the game to bed, Wilkins on hand 6 yards from goal to fire through a ruck of players. F-T 4-1


This result saw Arnold move to second in the league - they are only 2 points behind leaders Liversedge, but amazingly for the end of September, they have three games in hand.


Very impressed with the Eagles, and Parkgate were not a bad outfit - I have to say though that the team from Rotherham will not make many friends while "Mr. Foul-mouth" remains on their Management team....

Official attendance was 83, but there seemed to be a lot more than that ....

Admission £5.00

Programme £1.50

Wednesday -- Gedling Tn v Graham St. Prims


Saturday - Rainworth v Dunkirk

1 comment:

weasel117 said...

excellent review,you are welcome anytime Malc and Kev especially when the new ground is complete (mmmmmmmmmmmmmm)