Epiphany

Eastwood Hanley  3  Warstones Wanderers  0

Staffordshire FA Vase

I think they call it an ‘Epiphany’….

Can’t quite recall the year, but let’s work on the assumption it would have been some time around 1983.

At that time, I thought I knew it all when it came to football, despite being only eleven years old. You see, I had a Panini sticker album so I could tell you the name of the every First Division footballer, the nicknames of the clubs, and also the grounds they played at.

I also had an old Rothman’s annual from 1978, and that told me all I needed to know about clubs outside of the top flight, whereas  as someone who had started to watch a bit of non-league football, well of course I had a copy of the Non-League Directory.

The font of all knowledge, the oracle, it was frightening, my parents wanted to send me away for tests as they’d seen this phenomenon before when I was just four years of age and could sit on the Belper to Fritchley bus and recite the name, make and model of every car we passed on the journey.

I was special, in another era I probably would have been called Rainman, today I would probably get a blue badge and my wife could claim carers allowance, and I guess thinking about it, it might be something to explore maybe……?

So, I was a smartarse cleverdick, or so everyone who came across me probably thought. But, even geniuses get things wrong, but me, I got it wrong twice in a very short space of time…

The first schoolboy error, for a schoolboy of course, was that Port Vale FC had gone under the radar. You see, I was familiar with clubs having names that didn’t relate to where they played, like Arsenal, and QPR.  But, I never for one moment considered that Port Vale might actually be from Stoke-on-Trent. In fact, I don’t know where I thought they were from, it was as though I’d had a full frontal lobotomy, I was appalled at myself and sought punishment by memorising the complete playing record of the Valiants in the 1977-78 season.

It got worse though, some months later when I was getting most excited about the mechanics of the North West Counties League, I was looking at the teams and making a mental snapshot of where they were located. The list was quite straightforward, Accrington, Winsford, Leek, Horwich, and so it went on, but, again, for some inexplicable reason Eastwood Hanley ended up being conjoined with Nottinghamshire based Eastwood Town….

Eastwood Hanley

It was only some time afterwards when I was reading the UK Road Atlas (as I often did at a bedtime), did I spot a street plan of Hanley and put the two together. Bolt upright I leapt from my bed, dug out the non-league guide and wept uncontrollably, how can I have done it twice, in the same City!!

It never went away , so much so that when I turned eighteen and completed my A-Levels, I was only going to go to one location to do my degree, and that was going to be Stoke-on-Trent. I was going to become a local football expert, I would gain a BA (Honours) in Potteries Football Studies, I would become Neil Baldwin’s best mate up at Keele, I was never going to feel so foolish again.

In my very early University years, 1991 to be precise, I used to drive to Keele along the Leek Road which ran alongside the old Eastwood Hanley ground at Trentmill Road. I knew where they played as I had a Street Map of Stoke-on-Trent on my bedroom wall, forget the tennis player baring her arse cheek, it was a map for me!

I drove up to the ground once and had a look, it was run down and suffered from vandalism. I never did get to see them play as they soon moved out and ground shared for a period at both Kidsgrove Athletic and Newcastle Town.

Originally a Mid-Cheshire League side in the sixties, they spent many seasons in the West Midlands Regional League before joining the Cheshire League in 1978. This then morphed into the North West Counties League where they remained until 1987 when they became founder members of the Northern Premier League First Division.

They remained in the NPL until the early nineties where they suffered relegation back to the NWC, and then managed to survive albeit nomadically until 1997 when they left the league and folded

But, in 2014 a local club adopted the name again, they joined the Staffordshire County Senior League, and had a plan to eventually get the club back to its original home at Trentmill Road.

It’s taking time though, when I first saw them in action they were ground sharing further up the Leek Road at the Milton United ground, while Trentmill Road was being used for friendlies and junior games due to a lack of facilities. I did see a pre-season game at Trentmill Road, where some of the old terracing still remains, however vandalism is still an issue, and as it stands the club are still waiting to install suitable dressing rooms.

They did apply to join the North West Counties League at the end of last season but clearly without the facilities that wasn’t going to be possible. They spent last season at Stone Dominoes, whereas this season they’ve moved onto the 3G surface at the Northwood Stadium, again, which is just off the Leek Road.

It was time to go and have another look at Eastwood Hanley.

Main Stadium

I went to the Northwood Stadium a few years ago, only to find the game had been postponed. I can’t remember who was using it at the time but I ended up going to Hanley Town instead. At that time the resident club were playing on the main pitch which sits inside the running track, whereas now, Eastwood‘s base sits outside of the main stadium.

The ground is the typical artificial surface, inside a cage, with one side accessible for spectators. The club charge £3 admission but for that you also get a free programme which was very professionally produced and contained plenty of reading material.

A modest crowd of around 30 turned up to watch Eastwood, who are a Step 7 side, take on Warstones Wanderers from the Wolverhampton area who compete in the West Midlands Regional League at Step 8.

Liam Robinson opened the scoring in the second minute for Eastwood and for the opening stages they were well on top and a rout looked a possibility. Mark Shallcross then netted a second goal later in the first period to give the hosts a comfortable half time lead.

In fairness to Warstones, they looked much more organised in the second period and started to create some chances, but a third goal came from Charlie Cooke who netted from close range to secure the victory. That goal took the wind out of Warstones sails and any chance of a comeback was well and truly snuffed out.

And that was it, it was time to go home and read the road atlas again, but not before I’d framed my certificate in Potteries Football Studies, it took a lot of work to get that……