The Briggers

Worsbrough Bridge Athletic  4  Rossington Main  2

Northern Counties East League – Division One

I’ve only ever been to Worsbrough Bridge once before, it was a pre-season friendly back in July 2003 and it was to watch Gary Marrow’s Belper Town win 1-0.

Given the fact I work in Sheffield, its somewhat surprising that I’ve never been to the ground since, especially given that the Northern Counties East league is hardly sparing when it comes to scheduling midweek fixtures.

I have tried to go, but on many an occasion my best made plans fell apart due to weather conditions and a slightly suspect pitch that doesn’t take much to reduce it to a waterlogged swamp!

In fact, it’s that long since I went, the club has changed it’s name in the interim period, they are now an Athletic whereas before they were a Miners Welfare. I assume with the decline of the Miners Welfare in recent years, it was the natural an obvious thing to do.

I was determined to make it this season for a number of reasons, firstly because it is such a long time and I wanted to have another look, plus, I know they’ve done some work on the ground since so I wanted to check that out. Finally, I wanted to get to it before the bad weather sets in, which will undoubtedly make it doubly difficult later in the campaign.

Worsbrough Bridge Miners Welfare joined the old Yorkshire League back in 1971, and successive promotions saw them reach the top flight in double quick time. However, by 1982 when the Northern Counties East League had been formed, they’d dropped back to the bottom tier and consequently had to start in Division Two South of the newly created competition.

By 1991 they’d reached the First Division of the NCEL, and since then, that is precisely where they’ve remained. In most recent seasons, barring last time out, it’s been something of a struggle for the club, who dropped the Miners Welfare and took up the Athletic moniker in 2006.

The ‘Briggers’ play at Park Road, which saw its best attendance of 1,603 in 1971 when Blyth Spartans came to town in the old FA Amateur Cup. Park Road is shared with cricket, and sits on the main A61 road that runs from the M1 at Birdwell into Barnsley.

Parking is tight, but I was early enough to get in the car park. You walk down past the Sports & Development club to get through the turnstiles, and this brings you in behind the goal. Round to the left is open standing, and a small area of covered terracing on the half way line. You can’t get much beyond this as it leads to the cricket ground area which is out of bounds to spectators.

Going round to the right from the turnstiles the path takes you high up above the pitch which sits below a bank, while on the half way line sits the iconic old main stand which is like many in the area that have, and in some cases, still do adorn football ground with links to Miners Welfare’s.

Beyond the stand is a relatively new building that houses the dressing rooms and a small clubroom area that serves food and drinks, including very welcoming cans of Carling. Talking of welcoming, I found the home officials very friendly, in fact we spent some time, along with one of the match officials, talking about Belper’s recent game at Notts County in the FA Cup.

A crowd of 108 paid to watch the game against Doncaster based Rossington Main, and I have to say that the Briggers, managed by former Belper player Lee Morris, looked superb in the first half.

Ashley Emmett gave them an eighteenth minute lead, before Kieran Hirst got the second from the penalty spot on the half hour mark. Sam Race then scored a third just before half time in a game that had been very one way.    

I was expecting a deluge of goals from the Briggers in the second half but the game didn’t follow a similar pattern. Niall Doran pulled a goal back before Hirst restored the three goal advantage almost instantly. Main continued to battle and got a second goal in the final tem minutes from Tyla Bell.

It had been a very good game to be fair, and while the hosts were the better side, I was surprised to see them in the bottom half of the table on that showing.

I’ll try not to leave it sixteen years before I go again, but judging by the rain we’ve had over the weekend, it might not be before Christmas!