Youth

Greenhill Youth Council  5  Anstey Town  4

Leicestershire Senior League – Division One

I’m not completely au-fait with all things Coalville, despite it’s relative proximity to my neighbourhood.

I didn’t even realise a football club existed in the town until perhaps 2003 when I started to sniff around the Leicestershire Senior League and found Coalville Town. Now that was a bit of a story, they moved up through leagues at a pace and after a couple of late season mishaps they finally found themselves in Step 3, this after a Wembley appearance in the Vase and an FA Cup First Round adventure.

I then discovered the delights of Bardon Hill Sports and indeed Ellistown who both have tidy little grounds on the outskirts of the town. Ellistown was an eventful one, I saw a game abandoned after two minutes due to a serious injury in a County Cup tie with Oadby Town. Bardon Hill wasn’t quite as eventful, I can’t remember who they played but I do recall a tidy ground a nice clubhouse.

Then of course, I discovered Ravenstone, an LSL lower division club playing on a parks pitch, my memories of a game at that venue are a little hazy, I’m seeing black and white and a climbing frame, but not much else, I think they’ve now vanished.

So, other than a few returns to Coalville Town, as I say, I’m not well versed the place at all, so when I saw a side named Greenhill YC had been accepted into the LSL this season, it never for one minute occurred to me that they might be from the aforementioned.

A quick sniff around the interweb and it soon became clear that they were a successful side from the North Leicestershire League, and their home base was indeed on the Greenhill estate which sits a stones throw from the Bardon Hill ground.

Pre-season was quite interesting, as no sooner as they been announced as members of the league, they were bemoaning on social media the fact that they’d lost a few players to a local club that were paying money. Turns out it was Ellistown….

But, local football politics aside, it was time to go and have a look at what the next piece of the Coalville footballing jigsaw had to offer.

I met Steve in a pub just off the M1, he had already been to Greenhill in pre-season so he was going the opposite side of the motorway to watch Sporting Markfield. After a pint and some pre-footy banter I made my way the short distance to the Greenhill Youth Centre.

The car park was full, but the new housing development opposite had street parking, however before dumping the wagon I spied a chip shop just further up the road. With hunger setting in, chips and sausage was the order of the day.

Safely parked, it was getting towards kick off, in fact as I made my way past Don Noble Bookmakers with fodder in hand, the players were making their way onto the pitch.

A decent sized crowd had assembled, along with a good number of the travelling fraternity, at the side of the roped off pitch inside the large expanse of the Youth Centre. A BMX Track, a couple of pitches and a five a side court make up the complex, and it seems something of a community hub.

The game was superb, no question about it.

At 66 minutes visiting Anstey Town had a 4-1 lead and looked completely in control of proceedings, but then it all changed in dramatic fashion. The hosts scored twice in a matter of minutes to reduce the deficit to one goal, and then eight minutes before the end they scored again to bring the scores level.

Momentum was very much with Greenhill now, and if another goal was going to come, it was only going to be one way. With four minutes to go, Greenhill crowned a fantastic comeback with a fifth goal and ultimately the winner, albeit Anstey missed a great chance in added time to make it 5-5!

A home official took the time to come and chat to us in the second half, and he cleared up a query.  You see some of us thought the YC in the clubs name stood for Youth Club, whereas some of us thought it stood for Youth Centre (after the Youth Centre they play at), but it appears it was neither, in fact it’s Youth Council. Some connections with a local church it appears.

A great night at a football club that is honest, hardworking, and realistic. They know their limitations and have no pretentions to be something they can never be.

In Coalville, it might be a case of knowing where you sit in the the pecking order.