A Salutary Lesson

Eastwood Community Development  2 Awsworth Villa  1

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Premier Division

It’s been a well trodden path down Chewton Street to Coronation Park, ever since dear old Mr H (Senior) first took me on that cold November night in 1983 when Belper Town were well beaten by Bill Jeffrey’s impressive Badgers side.

Back then, and for many years after, Eastwood was one of those clubs whereby very little seemed to change. Bill Jeffrey was the Manager for years, and then after him came Bryan Chambers who again sat in the hot seat for many years to come.

Behind the scenes you had the stalwarts such as Paddy and Pat Farrell, Ron Storer, and while you wouldn’t always know the names of the other club officials, you’d know the faces.

On the pitch, certainly when I started watching them, they were always a successful side, and I remember players like Graham Wright, Mark Richardson, Graham Collier and Neil Lovell being mainstays of a team that quite frankly, always seemed to be a thorn in the side of Belper Town.

It was a bit of a shame when the Northern Premier League formed its First Division back in 1987 because local sides Alfreton Town, Sutton Town and Eastwood Town all made the step up, Belper elected not to for some reason or another, but what that meant was a ten year hiatus where paths simply never crossed.

So, let’s look at the history, but up to a point, because the story of this football club is one where things changed, very quickly, and the outcome, well, that’s for others to judge.

The Badgers joined the old Midland League in 1971, and after three ‘average’ seasons they then went on a spell of remarkably consistent seasons. In eight successive campaigns they never finished lower than sixth, winning it once, and being both runners-up twice and third twice.

When the Midland League joined forces with the Yorkshire League in 1982, to form the Northern Counties East League, again for the first four seasons they were runners-up twice (once to Belper!) and fifth twice. Ironically, in the final season before making the step to the NPL they came thirteenth, the clubs lowest finish for fourteen seasons.

The club never really hit the heights when in the First Division of the NPL, in sixteen seasons they recorded a best finish of fifth, while twice they narrowly avoided relegation by default. In fact relegation did come in 2003, back to the NCE, but a runners-up spot saw them return after just one year away.

It was not long after returning to the NPL in the mid-Noughties that things started to change at Coronation Park. The old guard moved on, and new blood arrived, and as it often does it came with a fanfare of high expectation, hopes, dreams and promises of great days to come.

Of course, for a period it certainly did that. The Third Round of the FA Cup was reached, after impressive victories over Wrexham, Brackley Town and Football League outfit Wycombe Wanderers. Kettering Town away was not the glamour tie they were looking for, they lost the game 2-1.

Promotion to the NPL Premier was achieved, then after a fourth placed finish in their first season what where they lost out to Gateshead in the play-offs, they won the title in 2008-09, having a right royal battle with fellow big spending neighbours Ilkeston Town on the way to it.

Life was good at Coronation Park, young Manager Paul Cox had assembled a very talented side, many of whom were playing below a level they were capable of.  

The first season in the Conference North saw a tenth placed finish, and then a fourth placed finish the following season was sufficient to get them into the play-offs. In that season (2010-11) the winners of the league were Alfreton Town, and towards the end of the campaign I was at the game between the two sides at Coronation Park that Eastwood won in front of a huge crowd. You would have definitely fancied them in the play-offs, but the World was about to dramatically change.

The club were denied a place in the end of season lottery due to ground inadequacies. The reasons seemed somewhat petty and the club argued that the issues didn’t come to light until the eleventh hour. Cynics suggested the Conference were sick of them and were waiting for an opportunity to shaft them, under the ownership of local entrepreneur Rob Yong, it did appear that while they won games, they didn’t win popularity contests.

With toys right out of the pram, Yong sold the club, with no money and no assets the club were relegated twice on the bounce, and then in November 2013 they were issued with a winding up petition for £168,000 over unpaid tax. The council padlocked the ground over unpaid rent, and after cancelling five successive home games, their playing record in NPL Division One was expunged, the club was dead. What a sad yet almost predictable end to one of the mainstays of non-league football in the East Midlands. The old guard, who had long since moved on, must have been horrified by what they saw.

Out of darkness comes light though, and along came Eastwood Community FC, a newly formed club playing in the Central Midlands League, and having got the keys to Coronation Park, the process of rebuilding football in the town was about to begin.

Sensible and commercially viable structures were put in place, a youth and community programme implemented, a 3G pitch installed, while the ground was given a much needed spruce up. A couple of years of stability were achieved before a runners up spot in 2016-17 was bettered last season with a championship crown, the club were promoted to Step 6 and the East Midlands Counties League.

I’ve been to Eastwood a few times over recent seasons and it’s a great place to visit, the bar is excellent, the ground equally so, and the team play some very good football. After the first team were promoted out of the CML last season, the development side took up it’s place at Step 7, but were moved sideways into the Notts Senior League.

With not a lot else on, it was time to pop down and have a look at how the young lads were fairing, especially in a derby game against near neighbours Awsworth Villa.

I watched the game in the company of the blogging legend that is Malc Storer who is a former programme editor of the Badgers from years gone by, and Pete ‘Ken Dodd’ Watmough, who to the best of my knowledge has never ran a blog or edited a programme. In and amongst the usual banter was a very decent game of football.

The impressive Joe Butler gave Eastwood the lead, but late in the second half the visitors deservedly equalised through Ben Watson. With a draw looking the likely outcome, it was Eastwood who had the last laugh when Butler finished well as the game moved into injury time, to secure the three points.

Whenever I go to Coronation Park these days, or the Play Soccer USA 3G Arena as it’s now known, I can’t help but think back to the days of Bill Jefferey, Bryan Chambers, Paddy Farrell et al, and wonder what they must have thought when they saw the boom and eventual bust of this once proud club. 

A salutary lesson for us all I guess.