Gingerbread

Grantham Town  0  Ashton United  4

Northern Premier League – Premier Division

It’s hard to comprehend that it’s almost thirty years since Grantham moved from their old London Road ground to the Meres.

I never went to London Road for a game, but I did have a look over the fence once in 1984 when we had a stop off on the way to watch Belper play at Spalding United. I remember that journey very well, I shared the back seat of my Dad’s car with the great Kevin Hector. I also remember my Dad talking to some of the Belper contingent about Grantham being the birthplace of one Mrs Thatcher.

I’ve been to the new ground on just three occasions, the first being an FA Trophy Quarter Final against Southport in 1998. The ground was packed with a record 3,960 spectators, and the atmosphere was pretty hostile, not least in a pub close to the ground prior to the game. I drank up quickly and left, and as I walked out of the door I distinctly remember the doorman saying to his colleague “told you he wouldn’t stay long”. A fine Grantham side at the time, containing the likes of the Harbottle’s, Dave Taylor, Dave King, Neil Glasser, Steve Sutton and Gary Mills were held to a 1-1 draw before losing the replay.

Since then, I diverted to a game against Margate around a year later after Belper’s game at Lincoln United was postponed late in the day, and then finally I had a not so Good Friday watching Belper get well beaten in 2010.

I’ll be honest, Grantham don’t get a very good press. I think it’s for two reasons. Firstly, they play at an athletics stadium, and no one really likes watching football at these kind of venues, and secondly, the fans, rightly or wrongly, have a bit of a reputation for being less than friendly.

From my own perspective, I’ve seen Grantham play home and away, and not had any problems with the fans, apart from one time when a bunch of them turned up at a Belper game after their match at Matlock had been called off. They did cause a few problems that day, with a litter bin making it’s way onto the pitch, but otherwise, no issues.

Ok, so it’s an athletics stadium, but taking that to one side, the facilities are actually very good indeed. The car park is large and spacious, while the clubhouse is large, reasonably priced, and has live football showing.

The main stand offers great views, while to either side of the stand are two steep areas of uncovered terracing. Opposite the main stand is another steep rake of covered terracing, while the curves behind each goal contain smaller areas of two-stepped terracing. Put another way, if you removed the running track and moved everything towards the pitch, no one could have anything to complain about.

The pitch is also very good, and today, after it smashed it down solidly and games were falling by the wayside, it was in fine nick and the game was never in any doubt.

The history of the club is a rich one. 

A powerful Midland League side in the Sixties and Seventies, winning it three times, they were promoted to the Southern League North Division in 1972 and promptly went on to win that.

They then had five seasons in the Premier Division, finishing runners up in the first campaign, before being relegated back to the North Division in 1978. A move to the Northern Premier League followed and that lasted six years before relegation came, but back into the second tier of the Southern League.

In 1986 the club added ‘Town’ to their name and success came in the late Nineties when they won the Southern League Midland Division and with it promotion to the Premier. Something of a yo-yo existence has followed, with two promotions, two relegations and a lateral move, seeing them now established back in the Premier Division of the NPL. It’s not been dull on the pitch at Grantham, in between the ups and downs, they’ve also lost in two Play-Off Finals.

The FA Cup has also been good to them, with the Town incarnation having played Leyton Orient at home in the First Round in 2003, while the plain old Grantham FC had numerous First Round appearances, with a best effort coming in 1974 when they lots at home to Middlesbrough in the Third Round.

Getting to the ground is pretty easy, but to be honest, it was a fairly late call to go. Grantham wasn’t even on the radar until the middle of the afternoon, but as the rain continued to fall, my plan to head over the tops to Manchester seemed very unappealing so I went for an option with back-ups relatively close by in the way of Notts County and Ilkeston Town.

I went M18 and then A1, the ground on Trent Road is less than two minutes from the A1 exit, and soon I was sat in the bar admiring all of the old programme covers that adorn the walls. Given the weather a crowd of just over 200 pitched up to watch a Grantham outfit on the fringes of the play off places take on Ashton United who were in the lower reaches of the table.

The rain had ceased but it was windy and cold so I opted to perch in the lower tier of the main stand, up against the back wall, it provided some respite from the wind, but it was certainly the first time this season that you could say Autumn has definitely arrived.

Grantham were well and truly beaten by a very useful looking Ashton outfit. Nicholas Clee opened the scoring as early as the third minute, while Conner Hughes made it 2-0 with a cracking shot less than ten minutes later.

Samuel Sheridan made it three before Michael Tweed saw red for Grantham following a rash challenge, and the evening went from bad to worse five minutes before the end when Jordan Slew made it 4-0.

I’m sure Grantham have played much better this season, and will do so again, but on tonight’s showing they were very much second best.

A disappointed crowd trooped away from the Meres (or the South Kesteven Sports Stadium as it is also known) but, after a number of years of league hopping, they are probably to some extent, glad of the stability.

Is the Conference North a possibility? Well they lost out to the very same Ashton United two years ago in a Play-Off Final that would have seen them make it for the first time, so why not? Maybe then we can no longer say the most famous thing to come out of Grantham was Margaret Thatcher……