Northfield Emeralds 3 Newbold Verdon 2
Friendly
On Wednesday 24th July I
made the journey to Leicestershire to watch a football match.
Blog readers, you’d better get used
to this, because I’m going to be going quite a bit this season, eight times to
be precise!
You see, when the Leicestershire
Senior League created a third division at the start of last season, they
effectively opened the doors for a whole raft of clubs to obtain membership,
and this is the season when the floodgates have effectively opened.
So, coming in, we have Greenhill
Youth Club, Bottesford, Kibworth Town, Fleckney Athletic, Sutton Bonington,
Sporting Markfield, Newbold Verdon, and indeed, Northfield Emeralds.
Trying to pin down some friendlies
has proved to be a challenge, firstly clubs don’t always advertise them,
secondly they don’t always say where they are going to be played at, and
thirdly they have a habit of being cancelled at short notice. That isn’t an LSL
thing by the way, it’s just a general thing, and it seems to have got worse
this pre-season.
However, Northfield Emeralds have
been very prompt and efficient in terms of social media and after a cursory
check with the club, it was confirmed we had a live one!
I did a bit of research on the club
on the basis I’d never heard of them, and what I found was a side based close
to Humberstone on the North East side of the City Centre. They play at the
Emerald Centre, which is the local Irish Community Hub, and from a playing
perspective, they were formed in 2013, and in 2018 they won the First Division
of the Leicester & District League, winning promotion to the Premier
Division. They finished third in their first season in the top flight last time
out.
Getting to the Emerald Centre is
not the quickest of journeys to be fair, the easiest route from the M1 being
via Beaumont Leys and the A563 Northern Ring Road. The last couple of miles
being the most stop / start in the rush hour traffic, but once through the
lights on Victoria Road, the ground is just on the left hand side.
It’s an impressive facility, with a
small car park, and a clubhouse / dressing room complex adjacent to it. The bar
opens at 7pm, and on a lovely night, it did a brisk trade.
The sports ground is primarily for
Gaelic games, football and hurling, and as a result it’s a huge expanse. It’s
railed off, and it has floodlights, while the car park end has raised areas
where the game can be viewed from. The football pitch fits more than
comfortably inside the Gaelic field.
Visiting Newbold Verdon were also
newcomers to the division, and what’s quite interesting is that one or two of
the new sides are playing each other in friendlies, which is unusual to have
sides from the same division playing each other.
The game itself was enjoyable, and
not without interest.
Emeralds set off at a fast pace and
Verdon looked to be struggling, going 2-0 down in the first period, but as the
game progressed the visitors started to find their feet and got back into it.
A 2-0 deficit ended up being back
at 2-2, which to be fair did look unlikely twenty minutes into the game, but it
was the hosts who scored the all important fifth goal which won the encounter.
I have to say, I found the set up
very good, and he locals very welcoming, Northfield Emeralds look like being a
cracking acquisition for the LSL. I think on the pitch they will also do very
well, so I’ll watch their progress with interest.
Seven more visits to go now, and
I’m looking forward to them. With my old pal and fellow hopper/blogger Rob
Campion now at the helm as Fixtures Secretary, it’s looking fairly
straightforward to plan them in well in advance – it’s a shame it’s not quite
so simple when it comes to pre-season friendlies!
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