Abandoned

Newbold Verdon  2  Northfield Emeralds  6 (abandoned 74 minutes)

Leicestershire Senior League – Division Two

I might have covered this subject matter before, but when I first started to watch Leicestershire Senior League football back in the mid Noughties, some of the games I went to were akin to a re-enactment of the Battle of Bosworth Field!

My personal favourite for a good old 22+ man battle was Ellistown, they must have been an absolute delight to play against, but, to be fair, they were also pretty good footballers as well! I once saw a game at Ellistown abandoned after two minutes, it was a bad injury that caused that, but the aftermath was very spicy indeed.

FC Braunstone Victoria were a bit lively as well, but not quite as endowed in the footballing stakes as Ellistown. They could handle themselves though, but they didn’t last long, only slightly longer than most of the players stayed on the pitch!

I was a bit vocal and probably somewhat prejudicial about the league on the Kempster Forum, and to be fair, current Fixtures Secretary Rob Campion pulled me up on it, suggesting we meet at a game for a pint, and he would show me two teams behaving themselves. Melton Mowbray and Barlestone St Giles did behave themselves that day, until mid way through the second half when the centre half sparked out the centre forward with a right hander, for no apparent reason!

I’ll be honest though, since then, I’ve been to several games in the LSL and not seen an ounce of bother, in my mind it is absolutely not a league with discipline issues on the field (if it ever was in comparison to other leagues).

So, what happened at Saturday’s game at Newbold Verdon to my mind was an isolated and out of character incident, that actually could have been avoided, so allow me to give my observations. And please, this is what I saw, and it may differ from others views.

Up until the 76^th minute we’d had a few yellow cards, but nothing noteworthy. The only thing I would have said was that the referee did have a demeanour that was perhaps suggesting it wouldn’t take much for him to react and get a little bit excited. I overheard some of the visitors team talk at half time and the manager pointed this out to his players, warning them to behave themselves as he too sensed the referee was prone to flashing a red without too much consideration.

We had a typical incident that you see countless time, player on the floor, legs get tangled, they push and shove. A few more then join in, but herein lies the problem. The incident happened very close to the touchline, and right next to it were a number of the Newbold Verdon reserve team players who had come back from their game, plus some spectators, so within seconds you had significantly more people on the pitch, involved, than ever should have been.

It did look to be calming but then I saw the visiting goalkeeper get involved and seemingly throw a punch, this resulted in further punches and an ever growing melee, at which point the referee blew his whistle and announced the game was abandoned.

Both sides then tried to get the referee to reconsider, but even then, one or two players had to be kept apart as they left the pitch. It was all a bit unsavoury, and did seem very out of character considering the way the game had been played.

My view? The referee was perhaps hasty in abandoning the game, he could have let the situation calm and dished out some cards, I overheard him say that he saw four players throw punches, but whether he could identify them is I guess a different matter.

But, if everyone who shouldn’t have been on the pitch, had stayed off the pitch, then maybe the situation wouldn’t have escalated, and maybe the referee would have found it easier to identify the culprits.

However, it is what it is, and what happens next, it’s up to the league I guess. Personally I would let the result stand, Emeralds were 6-2 up and coasting, the last fourteen minutes wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

It had been a very entertaining game up to that point. Newbold shocked the visitors, who had a 100% record, by taking a two goal lead, but two hat-tricks, courtesy of Lewis Turland and Ayrton Carter-Fell saw the Emeralds dominate proceedings and play some exciting attacking football.

I’d been for a pint in the village beforehand at Newbold Verdon’s main sponsors home, The Jubilee, where spectators from both teams were enjoying a pre-match drink, while the facilities at the Alans Way Sports Field consisted of a large sized single storey dressing room and club house, that’s shared with the cricket. The football pitch was to the right of this and was taped along two sides.

It was a shame it ended how it did, the people who are involved Newbold Verdon, Northfield Emeralds and the Leicestershire Senior League don’t deserve to have their good names tarnished by what happened in the 76^th minute.

This is 2019 you know, not 2004!