In The Country

SESKU Miners  10  Youdan  3

Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League – Division Two

Admission / Programme – No / No

It never crossed my mind when sat in the car park at Frickley Athletic on Tuesday night, that I’d be back in the very same car park four days later!

I had a plan, a wonderful plan to be fair, I was going to set off down the M1 and head into North East London for a game at the Barkingside football ground, where Redbridge FC play. The weather forecast was a bit iffy, but on the balance of things, it should have been ok.

Except, I was on the train to Manchester on the Thursday for a day sesh round the Christmas Markets with daughter, when I thought I’d follow Redbridge on Twitter to keep an eye on things. It was only then that I thought something wasn’t quite right because they were advertising a bus trip to Hereford!

Turns out I’d not spotted the fact they were still in the FA Trophy, and instead of being at home in the league, they were having a day out instead! That blew that one out, so I decided to have a re-think and have a proper look on the Friday at what alternative options were available.

The weather forecast for the South East was Billy Grimbo, I toyed with a 2pm at Sittingbourne, but with no plastic options in the vicinity, and having agreed to do something on the home front at 7.30pm on Saturday night, the idea of travelling a distance was looking less and less appealing.

I then remembered about SESKU Miners, a new team in the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League, who had set up home on the new 3G pitch which sat in Frickley Country Park, effectively North East of the home of Athletic, around 200 yards or so away.

I didn’t put the venue on the list at the start of the season, largely because adjacent to the 4G is a grass pitch within Frickley Country Park that I’ve seen South Elmsall  United Services play on, but, I decided to keep it in mind for an occasion when I was struggling elsewhere due to weather etc.

That moment had arrived, a look at the fixtures confirmed they were indeed due to be at home, and after connecting with them via Facebook and asking the question, all was quickly confirmed as good to go, against visiting Youdan from deepest Sheffield.

So, parked in the same car park, this time in daylight, it was a case of waiting for the players to arrive, from the both sides, which they duly did, but somewhat confusingly they were heading straight down to the pitch rather than into the relatively newly built changing room block behind the goal at Athletic’s ground, which United Services used when I last visited. Turns out there is a little bit more to the 3G at Frickley Country Park than you might expect!

For a start, you can access three sides of it, and as you walk in you’ve got cabins that serve as toilets, and a Tea Bar (separately I might add). The changing room issue was quickly resolved, turns out on the side that spectators can’t access, in each corner is a wooden building (not to be confused with a shed) that the teams use to change in. Whether they have showers etc is unclear but you would assume so? In short, it was better than I was expecting, and rather than looking and feeling like a school or leisure centre facility, it actually felt like and resembled a football ground! The facilities, which are built on what was the former slag heap that dominated the local area, look to have been funded by, and are owned by South Elmsall Town Council, in partnership with the local sports association.

So what is SESKU?

An acronym, South Elmsall, South Kirkby, Upton, three former mining communities in the locality, who have a combined football club, recently formed it seems, serving all ages. They put a side in the bottom tier of the County Senior at the start of this season, and so far it’s been going ok, six wins from eight games has kept them in touch at the top, whereas visiting Youdan, well they’ve lost every game!

Before the game I had a wander into the Country Park, largely to admire the views from the top and get a decent aerial photo of the ground, it’s quite a serene location, with runners, dog walker and mountain bikers doing their thing, a far cry from the days of the coal mines. If someone had said twenty years ago what this place would end up looking like, you wouldn’t have believed them!

The game was entertaining, watched by a decent sprinkling of spectators.

Twice SESKU took the lead, but twice Youdan pegged them back. SESKU then scored two more to make it 4-2 before another goal from the visitors saw the half time score line 4-3. To be fair though, SESKU were much the better side but poor defending was their undoing.

The second half was a different story, SESKU scored six times without reply, winning 10-3, with Nathan Harrop claiming a double hat-trick! Youdan also had a player sent off for a bad challenge to make matters worse.

Weirdly, looking at my notifications on Futbology, on the corresponding weekend of the previous season I was also watching a game on plastic, Leeds University v Alwoodley. The final score? 10-3

So, bit of a rescue job, but a worthwhile one, and a pleasant surprise as well in terms of what I found.

Turns out Sittingbourne played in the end!