Lady Ga Ga

Parkgate  2  Skegness Town  3

Northern Counties East League – League Cup

I remember it like it was yesterday, it was February 2013 and it had been less than a year since I’d set up home with Mrs H.

It was a Tuesday and the previous night she’d not been very well, and with no sign of her getting better I left her in bed to recover. Being the caring kind of future husband, I checked in throughout the day to see she was ok, and while we weren’t seeing much improvement, she wasn’t getting any worse either.

So by the time it got to around 6pm, I was happy that she would be able to survive home alone until at least 10.30pm when I got in from football…………………

I headed over to Parkgate to watch them play Retford United, and all was calm until half time, and just after I’d blagged my way into the hospitality area, it all kicked off.

The phone rang, it was Mrs H

“Where are you, you said you’d be home by now?”

I tried to explain that as it was only half time at football, and I was going to be a good couple hours before getting home, but it wasn’t landing. It then occurred to me that she was slightly delirious, and a little bit confused having not long woken up from a nap.

This placed me in a bit of a predicament, Mrs H was going a touch doolally, but the game was delicately poised, I had a decision to make……..

Moving forward over six years, I was conscious of the fact I’d not been to Parkgate for a good while, and having noticed they’d got a League Cup tie against high flying Skegness, I thought it time to pay them a visit.

Parkgate FC are located on the edges of Rotherham in the village of Rawmarsh, a village that once had a team called Rawmarsh Welfare playing in the Sixties and Seventies in the old Yorkshire League. I know this because my old mate Steve used to play for them, albeit he was known as Kevin until he reached the legal age for playing mens football at the time!

I first went to the ground back in the late nineties to see Belper Town win an FA Cup replay, from memory I seem to recall the late great Steve Adams scored that evening, but until that night in 2013, I never went again.

Anyhow, they have a lovely set up at the Roundwood Sports Ground. You drive down a potholed path with a golf course to your left and the car park in front of you. The first thing you see is the training ground of Rotherham United and the perfectly manicured pitches, but to the right is the two storey social club with the football ground just in front of it.

The football ground consists of a tea bar and a seated stand behind the goal (more on the stand, or should I say the seats, in a moment). Round to the right the viewing area rises up, and comprises of a short area of covered terracing, and then open terracing which runs beyond the half way line before tapering out as it reaches the corner of the pitch.

It’s flat standing behind the goal at the top end, while the sides that flanks onto the RUFC facilities is inaccessible for spectators but is naturally enclosed via some conifer trees.

The pitch is something else, it really is, if you can find a better surface within a fifty mile radius in non-league football I would love to see it, it’s simply magnificent.

Right, I chose to spend the game watching from the seats behind the goal, but these were not your typical tip-up seats. Try and visualise this for a moment, when you get to a seat you normally push it down, and it turns on a clockwise axis, so when you then stand up, it flips back in the opposite direction to an upright position. Not so at Parkgate, it goes the other way, in the sense that it rotates anti-clockwise, which is fine until you move to the edge of your seat or lean forward, at which point you start to slide off! I’m sorry Parkgate, that is my ONLY criticism of your superb facilities, luckily I was sober otherwise it could have ended in tragedy!

It was a very good game, I must say. Skegness played some lovely passing football and deservedly took the lead thanks to a close range header from Gary King ten minutes before half time. The game turned on it’s head completely though early in the second period when firstly Simon Harrison and then a minute later Lewis Whitaker made it 2-1 to the hosts.

Skeggy were rattled but they found their composure and grabbed an equaliser from Joshua Nicol in the 74^th minute, and just when we thought we were heading straight to a penalty shoot out, the visitors were awarded a penalty in the 86^th minute that King put away.

Skegness looked a very good footballing side, but Parkgate also played some good stuff and showed battling qualities. I really did enjoy the game.

So, the big question? That night in February 2013, did I leave at half time as requested, or did I stay to watch the second half? I’ll leave you to think about that one, and those that know me well don’t even have to blink to know what the answer might be………………..