Headstocks

Brinsley   2   FC Mansfield   4

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Division Two North

The arrival of Brinsley into the Notts Senior League came a little bit out of leftfield.

I can’t recall exactly when they last had a senior side competing on a Saturday, although something tells me they had a team in the Midlands Regional Alliance back in the Nineties at some point?

I remember they had a junior team back when we were kids, they were called Brinsley Magpies and I know that because one of my mates (Rad – real name Mark Radford) played for them and his Dad may well have been Manager. Rad was from Brinsley originally, and, furthermore the family were big Notts County fans hence the Magpies suffix.

I fancied something close to home to allow for a later start to my day, and with Brinsley being about twenty minutes away it ticked all the boxes. Brinsley, for those who don’t know, sits just North of Eastwood and is only a few minutes away from Underwood and junction 27 of the M1.

It’s only a village, with around 2,500 inhabitants, but what is it famous for?

This is where Wikipedia comes in handy as I must profess to not knowing a lot about Brinsley the village, and even less about the football club!

It appears that in 2007 there was some controversy in Brinsley when Sadie Graham was elected by the village to represent it on Broxtowe Council as an Independent candidate. Turns out that she was actually connected to the British National Party, but it mattered little, she never turned up for meetings and was sacked anyway.

Onto something more cultural and slightly less controversial, we have Brinsley Headstocks which are something to do with the mining industry. They are apparently the only type left of their kind, and having initially been placed in a museum, they are now back in the village.

Brinsley also has a well known carnival, which raises funds for local good causes, and, other than a quite nice looking chip shop on the main road, that my dear friends, is all I can tell you about the place!

So what about the football team then?

Well, they play on the local recreation ground which sits on the right of the main road as you come from the Eastwood direction, and at the side of the small car park is a large sized community building that houses the dressing rooms. The recreation ground itself is a large expanse containing two football pitches, a kids play area, and a circular walk around it’s perimeter which for the large part is tree lined. It was a nice place, and with the chippy and the ‘Go Between’ micro pub just over the road, spectators (and managers / substitutes) were well catered for!

In terms of this season, they’ve been placed in Division Two North as opposed to the Foundation Division, and to be fair, I cannot quite work out how the league decided who was going in what division, but it is what it is now.

It’s not been the best of starts though, four losses from four games did not bode well. That said, other than a 4-0 defeat at Trent Vineyard the previous week, every defeat has been by the single goal.

Visiting FC Mansfield are another new side this season, and after three games they had yet to win, albeit they’d recorded two draws. One way or another, something had to give.

Brinsley got off to a good start, taking the lead, albeit the visitors came back into the game and after some suspect defending it was the boys from Mansfield who sat with a 3-1 lead midway through the second half. The hosts did pull another goal back to reduce the deficit to one goal, but Mansfield responded to make the final score 4-2 to the visitors.

In fairness, Brinsley had plenty of the ball, and they had chances, but when they found themselves under pressure it was mistakes that proved costly, and the goals against column in the league table is testimony to that.

I was somewhat wet on the drive home, it smashed it down at half time and with no cover I was open to the elements. It was a very short drive back to blighty, and a change of clothing was very welcome.

And that was kind of it, not a lot else to say really. Neither over excited nor underwhelmed by it all, another one off the list, baby steps at the minute. Any time now I suspect it will all come to a halt, the Brinsley’s of this World may be as good as it gets, for the foreseeable that is.