Main Event

Denaby Main  2  Swinton Athletic  3

Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League – Premier Division

Admission / Programme - Free / Online

Tickhill Square in Denaby, now that brings back some memories.

It would have been 1984-85 when I first went, in Belper’s Northern Counties East League Championship season, and I remember the 1-0 victory well. Largely because it was the day when Burton Albion infamously lost 6-1 to Leicester City at the Baseball Ground in the FA Cup Third Round, and as the afternoon wore on the shameful scenes at the game were being broadcast on the radio.

The following season I can remember going on the opening day and seeing a 3-3 draw against the Nailers, and my abiding memory of that game is speaking with my Dad to the then Denaby Secretary, Arthur Jones, before the fun on the pitch started. 

I went a few more times thereafter, but then things got a little bit spicy in the mid-Nineties when the two clubs were going neck and neck for the NCEL title. In 1996-97 Denaby did indeed win the crown, losing just three games, but ground grading issues meant they were overlooked for promotion to the Northern Premier League and Belper as runners-up were promoted instead.

It went down like a shit sandwich, Denaby in their match programme for the final game of the season accused Belper of skulduggery, suggesting that because Mr H Senior was on the NCEL management committee, he pulled a few strings on the ground grading front and that was what swung it Belper’s way. Absolute rubbish of course, he had nowt to do with ground grading, but Denaby of course were entitled to think whatever they wanted to!

Denaby were never the same side again, and at the end of the 2001-02 season the club folded when they lost the use of Tickhill Square.

My early memories of Tickhill Square were of a ground that had a grandness about it, but it had clearly seen better days. The old main stand was a wooden affair that eventually burned down, while opposite was a further stand that from memory ended up being condemned and replaced by a new structure. It was a venue that oozed history, for Denaby United had a pretty illustrious one in the Midland and Yorkshire League’s, which included an FA Cup First Round appearance in 1958, when Oldham Athletic won 2-0 at Tickhlll Square.

So let’s fast forward then. Denaby United did re-form playing in the Sheffield County Senior League, albeit not at Tickhill Square, however, it didn’t mean that football was finished for good at the old venue, because along came Denaby Main FC.

Denaby Main joined the County Senior League in 2014, and since then they’ve done a great job in returning Tickhill Square to it’s former glories, as I shall try and explain.

I had no plans to go to Denaby Main on a Wednesday night in April for a 6pm kick off, but as my games of choice one by one fell by the wayside due to the rain, I had noticed a very confident tweet coming out of the club saying that they had no plans for a pitch inspection and the local derby against Swinton Athletic was very much on.

As we moved towards kicking out time at the office I’d made my mind up, 28 years after my last visit, I was going back, very curious to see how it had changed, not just in terms of the ground, but also the surrounding areas.

Denaby Main (as opposed to just Denaby) is a former pit village sat between Conisborough and Mexborough, and upon arriving in the village it was notable that various new commercial units had appeared on the edges, while some of the former pit houses had been replaced with newly built dwellings.

Parking at the cemetery which sits behind the old Denaby & Cadeby Miners Welfare building, I wandered in through the turnstile block behind the goal and cast my eyes around the venue, and indeed, it was much changed. The old main stand which was destroyed by the fire, has been replaced by a small seated stand, with the area to the rear that used to house the dressing rooms and a car park now sporting a Youth Hub.

On the opposite side is nowadays where all of the action is, a tidy bespoke seated stand, raised up from pitch level, provides the main vantage point, while to the side of this is a newly built dressing room and clubhouse block. A small area of cover also resides behind the goal at the Welfare end, and this stands away from the pitch tucked into the corner of the ground, while the opposite end remains open flat standing.

I would suggest, other than floodlights (the original lights have long since gone), this is a ground easily fit for Step 6 football, but whether the club have any intentions to move to this level, I couldn’t say.

So how did the game go? Well, firstly I was mightily impressed that they kicked off at 6pm, which is the set time for County Senior League games come April. I’ve been to many that have been later due to players struggling to make it on time, but in this case, no such concerns. The game itself was a bit of a cracker to be fair.

Denaby stunned the visitors by taking a two goal lead, but then we saw a dramatic turnaround in the second half where Swinton pulled a goal back from the penalty spot, before grabbing a late equaliser. As the game went into injury time the visitors threw the kitchen sink at Denaby and as we moved into the sixth minute of the aforementioned time, they forced home the winner which lead to some pretty impressive celebrations pitch side involving the team, the bench and a couple of rogue pitch invaders!

So that was Denaby, it was nice to go back, and it was great to see how Tickhill Square has gone through some impressive redevelopment work. The memories though, they truly did come flooding back…