Loughborough

Loughborough Dynamo  3  Stamford  1

Northern Premier League – Division One Midlands

Admission / Programme - £8 / £2

Football in the town of Loughborough is a bit of a story, would you like to hear a bit more about it?

Thanks to Football Club History Database I can just about piece it all together, as best I can.

The earliest record I can find is of a team called Loughborough Town who were a Midland League side in the 1890’s before joining Football League Division Two in 1895. They left the league in 1900 and seemingly disappeared. At around the same time a team called Loughborough Athletic played in in the Leicestershire and Northants League and then the Leicestershire Senior League, but they vanished before a team of the same name re-appeared in the Midland Combination in 1998 before becoming plain old Loughborough (seemingly a merger with Loughborough JOL). That club still exists in the Leicestershire Senior League.

There was then a team called Loughborough United who joined the re-formed Midland League in 1961, winning it in 1963, but then leaving it in 1972. Also a well known and large sporting student centre, it was inevitable that Loughborough University would have a team, and they did in the late sixties and early seventies in the Senior League, before returning again in 2007, currently performing at Step 5 at the hugely impressive stadium at the University. Last season the club reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase, losing to Littlehampton Town.

Then finally you have Loughborough Dynamo, a side that joined the Senior League in 1989, working their way up the pyramid before joining the Northern Premier League in 2008, where they have remained ever since playing at the Nanpantan Road Sports Ground.

Clubs such as Brush, Corinthians, Empress and YMCA have all plied their trade in the town, but in terms of the main players, I think I’ve just about covered it.

I first went to Loughborough Dynamo back in 2003-04, to see a comfortable 4-0 victory over Stapenhill, and I can remember thinking that the facilities were pretty decent for the level they played at. They won the top flight of the Senior League at a canter that season and I can recall at the time, given the lack of a side at the University in senior football, they were made up of a good number of students, two in particular, Abi O’Thomas and Dave Garroway standing out a mile as they scored goals for fun.

I didn’t go again until four years later for a game against Sheffield in the NPL (they went through the Midland Alliance pretty quickly), and apart from a couple of games when the University shared the facilities before the Taxpayer Dome was built, I have to say visits have been a little sporadic over the years. I have seen them play on many occasions, but mainly in away games.

I was on my way to the game about a month ago against Stamford when a cursory look at Twitter while sat in a traffic jam less than a mile at the ground advised me the game was off due to the weather, that meant an about turn to the Mickleover v Basford United game, but with the re-arranged game set up for a Tuesday night, I thought it worth a long overdue visit, largely to see if it’s changed much.

Not hugely if I’m honest, you still enter in the corner with the clubhouse and dressing rooms at the top of the bank, with a rake of covered seats in front. An area of cover sits on the East side of the ground while it looks like some open terracing has been constructed on the West side of the ground close to the dug outs, so it was largely as I remember it. The pitch was in excellent condition and the clubhouse was open nice and early for those of us who fancied a beverage.

It was a game I was looking forward to, Loughborough sat just outside the play off spots in the Division One Midlands, while visiting Stamford were top of the league having beaten one of the title favourites the previous Saturday in the shape of Halesowen Town. I had seem Stamford earlier in the season at nearby Shepshed and I thought they were an excellent side, so this promised to be entertaining.

I have to say though, the result didn’t quite pan out as I was expecting, Loughborough ran out worthy winners on the night, and in striker Kevin Bastos, they have one of the best players I’ve seen at any level all season.

Bastos ran Stamford ragged, scoring the opening two goals in the first half an hour, one of which was a penalty, before James Teague made it 3-0 on the hour mark. Jack Duffy pulled a goal back to give Stamford a glimmer of hope but it was never going to change the outcome, I thought Loughborough were superb.

So the story of football in Loughborough continues, three teams currently competing at varying levels, and to think for certain spells in the recent history of the town, you couldn’t find a ball being kicked on a Saturday afternoon.

Interestingly though, the University side currently sit top of their Step 5 league, unbeaten, so what price a Step 4 Loughborough derby fixture next season? One to keep an eye on for sure.