Youth Club

Blacon Youth  1  Lostock Gralam  2

Cheshire Football League – Division One

As we move into May, finding new football venues is proving a bit of a task, but thanks to the trusty old Cheshire Football League, one or two options were on the table, and the game at Blacon was the main attraction.

The third placed outfit from Chester, were at home to Lostock Gralam who sat top, with just Broadheath Central between them in the table. A victory for Gralam would guarantee promotion, whereas Blacon had games in hand should they not get the desired result, it was still in their hands.

Blacon sits right on the England / Wales border on the North West side of the City, not far from the Deva Stadium home of Chester FC. My journey took me via the M56 and through the village of Sealand, which is actually in Wales, before crossing the border again just before the high rise flats come into view.

Blacon is a large residential area made up predominantly of social housing, indeed at one point it was one of the largest council owned estates in Europe, but now its primarily owned by Sanctuary. Myself and Steve had a plan in mind and that was to meet at the Waggon & Horses pub, a mere five minutes from the ground.

With a bookies in the pub car park, it was a busy and indeed friendly place for a pre match pint and sandwich. But we couldn’t stay all day, a top of the table clash was looming around the corner and parking spaces were at a premium! Besides, they ran out of cheese and onion, which is no good at all….

The ground is pretty much what you’d expect at what is effectively Step 8, a railed pitch surrounded a quite superb playing surface, with dugouts opposite each other on either side of the pitch. Two buildings sit next to the car park, one being a changing room block, while the other serves as a clubhouse and seemingly a community centre for the youth of Blacon.

A friendly club, with strong support, indeed a good number had turned up to watch an important game in the clubs quest to attain Step 7 football next season. The Cheshire League is one of the better Step 7 competitions around, so to get into it you’ve got to be a pretty decent outfit.

It was a close game, but Gralam for me had the edge, with Alex Wilson giving them a first half lead. The second period was only moments old when the hosts grabbed an equaliser through Omar Ramo, but on the hour mark it Lostocks’ Robbie Hatton who found the net with the games third and decisive goal.

Of course, Blacon fought hard for an equaliser as you would expect them to do, but there efforts came to no avail and at the final whistle it was the Northwich based visitors who were celebrating a promotion that has been a good few years coming.

Blacon will go again, two wins from four games should see them home, but the final game is away at second placed Broadheath, I suspect the boys from Chester will ideally want it sewn up by then!

So that was the last Saturday of the season for me, three weeks earlier than last season when the horrible winter had such an impact on fixtures, whereas this time round the mild weather has left clubs kicking their heals as we approached the back end of the campaign.

The journey back was nice and straightforward, listening to the tales of joy and woe on Five Live as the likes of Notts County went down, Mansfield Town missed out and MK Dons celebrated. It’s always dramatic at this stage of the season, unless of course you are competing in the Step 4 play offs, in which case you probably don’t know whether you are up, down or sideways!

But today was about Blacon and Lostock, let’s hope that they are both competing at Cheshire’s top level next season, they are both more than capable of making a real fist of it.