Maltby
Main 8
Grimethorpe Sports 0
Sheffield
& Hallamshire County Senior Cup
It was
Tuesday the 21st of February 1989, and after a hard fought draw the
previous Saturday at our place, Belper Town faced a trip to Muglet Lane to take
on Maltby Miners Welfare in a League Cup Third Round Replay.
This was
uncharted territory for the Nailers, we’d never been to Maltby before and didn’t
quite know what to expect. Now my memory is pretty good, and I can remember two
things that specifically stand out from a game we lost 2-0.
Firstly,
they had a lad upfront called Ian Hutchinson who absolutely destroyed us. He
was a big centre forward and we just had no answer to his power and presence,
in fact, at the time I remember thinking to myself that we seemed terrified of
him. He scored one of the goals, he may have got them both, but either way, he
was a massive difference between the two side.
The other
abiding memory was the fact that this was a big game as far as Maltby were concerned,
what with Belper being from the division above and recent champions. A big
crowd had pitched up, and a large number of them congregated on the covered terrace
that sat on the Miners Welfare side of the ground. Talk about hostility, they
didn’t like us, not one bit, and the stick our players took was merciless, and
to be fair the match officials didn’t get away lightly either!
The Kop |
The ‘Maltby
Kop’ has, over the years, been stuff of legends, you could write a book about
it, in fact esteemed fellow blogger Rob Waite who writes THE66POW, has probably
already done so, and he has far more experience of it than I have. Tonight
though, I decided it was time to join them, but we’ll come to that later…
Any trip to
Muglet Lane is not the same without a wander round the corner to the Miners Welfare,
and every time I go in this place, I seem to make the same mistake, I sit in
someone’s seat, and it was the same again tonight when all around they were
setting up for some kind of meeting. They are very polite, and never ask you to
move, but it’s that look, the way you feel encircled and trapped, that makes
you head for another part of the room.
There’s a
picture on the wall that strikes a chord with me, it’s effectively a list of
all the closed South Yorkshire pits complete with their respective emblems,
under the banner of ‘Closed By The Tories’. It’s very evocative and is a timely
reminder that it may have been 1985 when the pits went to war, but it will
never be forgotten in these parts. Coal mining is part of the fabric in
villages like Maltby, and arguably over thirty years later they are still
trying to recover from the devastating effects.
The Kop From Within |
The Welfare
is a very nice place, warm and welcoming, and they do serve a good pint at
excellent prices. If you go to Maltby, make sure you pay a visit, but be
careful where you sit.
Back at
Muglet Lane, I needed some fodder so I got myself a burger from the chaps in
the tea bar. Maltby’s burgers are great, so I jokingly suggested that they
should give themselves some publicity, only to be met with..
“Bloody
hell, we don’t want it being made public we do burgers, health and safety will
come along and shut us down!”
Muglet Lane
is a proper little ground, with the infamous Kop sat next to a seated stand,
while the dressing rooms sit inside a two storey building by the corner flag,
otherwise, nothing else of note apart from the floodlight pylons which are pylons
from the old pit yard. These used to be commonplace years back in South
Yorkshire but as floodlighting systems have been upgraded, they are now as rare
as hens teeth, so long may they stay at Muglet Lane.
The Lush Surface |
The pitch
was in perfect nick, and to be honest I was expecting a relatively close game
against table topping County Senior League side Grimethorpe, who themselves
come from another famous pit village (see a previous blog article from last
April).
It wasn’t
to be though, Maltby scored three times in almost as many minutes in a first
half spell, and then added two more to go into half time with a 5-0 lead.
Clearly it was game over and I guess it was almost inevitable that they would
add to that tally in the second period, which they did, three time to leave the
score 8-0.
Were
Grimethorpe bad? No, not at all, they worked hard and tried to play football,
but on the night they came up against a Maltby side that were simply on fire
and playing some fantastic football. Was it harsh, maybe if you take into
account the effort the visitors put in, but in terms of the chances the hosts
created, it was difficult to argue with.
Even At The Keepers Distance - You Still Aren't Safe! |
So, the
Kop.
We are
talking the old boys here, and tonight what with it being a cup tie on a cold
night it probably wasn’t as populated as it normally is, but the banter was
still fantastic. The away team got away with it to a large degree, but when you
are 5-0 up at half time, you don’t really need to be getting under their skin. However,
in the past when a foolish opposition player has decided to respond to the taunts and bite back, its
game over, he’s finished, his football career is effectively ruined because
psychologically the damage will be beyond repair.
The
linesman did cop for it though, albeit good natured on this occasion. And as Rob once eloquently put, many a linesman
has metaphorically finished with his head on a stake after incurring the wrath
of the locals. I’m not saying they’ve managed to sway any decisions, but the
temptation to swing a particular way on a 50/50 call must be high!
It’s the
conversation and banter though that makes it though. I recall a game against
Scarborough once where the topical and learned subject was the North Sea cod
wars, whereas tonight, the subject for debate was same sex marriages. Now, this
is working class Maltby, a pit village where men are men and the women are not
to be messed with. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to how the conversation
developed, but suffice to say, I don’t want my blog closing down so I won't be repeating it!
So that was
Maltby, it doesn’t change, in fact it seemed no different to how it was thirty
years ago, and like many, I hope it never does change, it just wouldn’t be
quite the same would it?
Where Burgers Are Flipped |
No comments:
Post a Comment