Olivers Army

Handsworth U21  6  Harworth Colliery U21  1

North Midlands Development League

My mate Steve’s swears by it, he calls it his second home (his first being the Etihad Stadium – his third being his house in Chesterfield!).

Olivers Mount, the home of Handsworth Football Club, apart from the first team of course who play at Sandy Lane in Worksop, and having not been for donkey’s years, I thought it was time to go and check out the new facilities, and with it, see what all the fuss is about.

I’ll be honest, I was going to go to Sandy Lane tonight to watch the Worksop Town v Newcastle Town game, but given the rain we’d had and the forecast for the evening, I decided not to risk it, especially as they’ve had a few games called off this season already.

I knew Handsworth was a safe bet, and working less than three miles away, it seemed the sensible and the safe choice to make as the tail end of Storm Denzil continued to wreak havoc on the nation.

The Handsworth story is an interesting one. They joined the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior League in 2003, where they worked their way through the divisions until gaining promotion to the Northern Counties East League in 2010. They lasted two seasons, winning the First Division in the second season but due to ground grading issues, they were demoted back to the County Senior League.

While all of this was going on, a team called Parramore Sports worked their way out of the County Senior League, became Sheffield Parramore in the Central Midlands League, won it, and got to the NCEL. They then changed their name to Worksop Parramore, but after three seasons they merged with Handsworth to form Handsworth Parramore. The ground they used was Sandy Lane.

The man behind the Parramore rise was local businessman Pete Whitehead, but he realised that playing out of Worksop (he was the owner of Sandy Lane) was probably not going to be the long term answer for a Sheffield club. So the merger with Handsworth, who had a base and a thriving junior set up, provided much more scope for long term sustainability.

The aim was always to get the club back to Olivers Mount, and move up the pyramid, but it was met with logistical problems. Mr Whitehead left the club at the end of the 2018-19 season despite having come pretty close to attaining Northern Premier League football, and now the club plays out of Worksop as plain and simple Handsworth again, but the NPL is now largely unrealistic in the foreseeable future.

The junior and reserve sides have always maintained their base at Olivers Mount, which is located right at the side of the Sheffield Parkway, and this season has seen a 3G surface installed. The ground has lights, it has three stands, two of which have been transported from Sandy Lane, and a nice social club. However, the dressing rooms are a fair old walk from the pitch, and until that issue is resolved, the ground won’t be able to be used at current first team level.

As I say, the last time and only time I went was in their debut season as a NCEL club, it was against Glasshoughton Welfare and was a comfortable 4-0 victory. Almost ten years ago, a visit was long overdue.

It was pretty much as I remembered it, situated at the end of the road that is called Olivers Mount, once through the gate you have a cricket field in front of you, that appears to be now used for football only. Going round to the left takes you to the car park in front of the clubhouse and dressing rooms, while going round to the right takes you down to the car park which is just above the football ground.

The clubhouse is smart, and was busy pre match, in fact a good crowd had assembled to watch the table topping Under 21s. The walk down the path to the football ground is a lengthy one, before dropping down some steps that bring you pitch side. You can get all round the ground but to be fair everyone congregates on the one side where the old seated stand sits, flanked either side by the Atcosts that were shipped in from Worksop.

I’ve not seen an U21 game for a long time, and I’d forgotten just what good football is on offer. Handsworth played some excellent stuff, and won 6-1 thanks to goals from Mo Saeed (2), Sam Morley (2), James Woodhouse and Lawrence Ward. Saeed’s first goal was an audacious lob over the keeper from ten yards, quite spectacular!

Harworth put up a good fight and played some decent stuff, but Handsworth have some fine youngsters, Oscar Seth in midfield, a former Brighouse Town player, in particular stood out.

I can see why Steve likes to pay regular visits to Olivers Mount, it’s got everything really. A bar, a guaranteed game, cover, and more importantly, a very good football team. In fact, what’s not to like?