Hollyoaks

Upton FC  3  Daten  3

Cheshire Football League – Division One

Admission / Programme - Free / Free

Shocked?

I can imagine you probably are, in the sense that for the first time in quite a while I’ve not gone into Southern League or Isthmian League territory, and for that matter I’ve actually travelled North to a place that by my standards, isn’t too far away!

There is a reason, and that reason is that during the preceding week myself, Mrs H and Mr H (Jnr), had been on a little vacation to the Netherlands. That vacation started the previous Sunday courtesy of a train trip to London (of course I’d been in London for football the day before anyway!), and then went on to become a Eurostar venture that took us to Amsterdam on the Monday.

A fun week was had in the land of the Hurdy Gurdy, which I’m proud to say involved no football, and it ended at around 10.30pm on the Friday night when after a day of travelling the key finally went into the front door. Getting up and going back in the very direction we’d travelled from twelve hours later did not appeal, so I had to have a re-think of the options.

I started to look at what might fall onto the radar next season. By that, who’s applied to move from Step 7 to Step 6, and, who is in the running for promotion in the three leagues where I only bugger about with the top flight.

The Manchester League, the Yorkshire Amateur League and the Cheshire League being those respective competitions, but add into that the ongoing battle against the weather, I felt a plastic pitch was going to be the best option. Upton Junior Football Club were top of the Cheshire League First Division, and, they played on plastic at the Cheshire County Sports Club.

That’ll do, I thought, a 2pm kick off against Daten (an acronym for Department of Atomic Energy), less than two hours away, I could set off late morning and be home for close on 5.30. Boom, boom, and indeed shake the room, we had a plan that ticked all boxes!

Upton play on the East side of Chester, and the ground is accessed very easily from the M53, being only a mile or so from a junction. The journey up was a breeze, across the A50 to Stoke, up the M6, along the M56 past Runcorn and all that stuff, before heading into the City famed for Hollyoaks, Ian Rush and a zoo.

I was talking to Steve on the way up, recalling the last time I watched a game in Chester. It was the back end of the season, I remember it well because it was the day Notts County got relegated from the Football League. We went to Blacon Youth, which in itself was fine, but the pub beforehand, jeez, now that was an experience, we got out in one piece though, a result under the circumstances.

Otherwise, I’m not by any means a regular visitor to Chester. Steve goes about every week to visit the zoo, and as a result he has indeed been to a game at Upton before, but apart from the Blacon experience, I’ve only ever been the once to Chester’s ground back in my student days, and other than that it’s only been City Centre day trips and work meetings.

The Cheshire County Sports Club is a large complex, and from what I can gather spreads either side of the main A41. To the West is what appears to be a grass running track and a large building, and then if you head over the footbridge to the East you get the area where the football was happening.

To access that you enter via Mannings Lane and the first thing you see is the rugby pitch with a small stand, which it seems is used by Christleton RUFC. Next to this is the cricket ground where the occupants are apparently Cheshire County Officers CC, and then sat right in the centre of the complex is a two story dressing room and clubhouse facility, complete with viewing balcony!

Two 3G pitches are then at the very North end of the site, with my game of choice being played on the pitch that runs width ways along the edge of the A41. When I arrived a youth game was taking place on the pitch, while on the other pitch Upton JFC Veterans were playing a home game.

Upton JFC is a large club with various teams across all age groups, male and female, and from the point of view of the men’s senior team, they sat top of the league prior to the game and along with Bollington Town, St Michaels and Vulcan. They look set to be the sides vying to make it in to the top flight.

The way the game started you expected nothing short of a comfortable home victory. The first goal came with less than a minute on the clock thanks to a finish from Raener Gray, and then only a matter of minutes later Jack Middleton netted the second with a clever flick from a corner. At 2-0, and with Daten looking a little stunned, you had visions of a big victory, but…..

The visitors composed themselves and got to half time with the score still at 2-0, but then in the second period they stunned Upton with two quick fire goals in again, a matter of minutes, both from Jack Hodgkiss who produced some composed finishing.

At 2-2 you wondered what might happen next, and it was that man Hodgkiss who netted the third for Daten and at the time what looked like an unlikely comeback three points after a terrible start. However, as the game moved into injury time, the hosts won a free kick on the edge of the box, and up stepped Aaron Hinchliffe to put the ball over the wall and into the net.

3-3, on balance a point each was about right, Upton will be frustrated though, because at 2-0 they looked like they had it, but, credit to the boys from Culcheth, they certainly dug deep when all looked somewhat lost.

The escape from Chester was straightforward, and as I hoped, back in the door at 5.30pm. A very good afternoon out it has to be said, and fair play to Upton for getting back to me on Twitter to confirm details about the game beforehand. I hope they get the promotion they are striving for, Chester could do with more clubs higher up the pyramid.

I might try and shock you again this time next week…..!