The Elland Road

Ealandians  3  Morley Town  2

Yorkshire Amateur League – Premier Division

Admission / Programme – No / No

I embarked upon one of the most enjoyable hours drives to a football game I’ve taken in many a year when I set off from Hillsborough to go to Elland on a sun drenched Wednesday evening!

A day in our Hillsborough office saw me head up the hill out towards Bradfield, with the large reservoir to the left, through the beautiful countryside and then round the windy bit where the cycling thingy went a few years ago, before dropping down through Midhopestones.

A short run across the Stocksbridge bypass takes you to the Flouch Roundabout and then it’s the long scenic road into Huddersfield that takes in Hepworth, Holmfirth, Honley (where Mrs H lived for a while) and Berry Brow. Once Huddersfield has been negotiated, it’s out along the rather posh Halifax Road before climbing up towards the M62, going underneath it, and then dropping down into Elland with lovely view from Ainley Top into the distance.

Yeah, I bloody loved it, an hour of my life that didn’t half lift my spirits, and left me feeling glad that May midweek early kick off’s are still on the agenda, with another couple of weeks worth to go at yet still.

So what took me to Elland then? Well, I’ve been staying pretty close in recent weeks to sides that may move from the Premier Division of the Yorkshire Amateur League, into the Supreme Division. We were now at a point that it looked likely that any number of the threesome that is Greetland, Gildersome Spurs Old Boys, and indeed Ealandians would be well placed for the promotion places.

Ealandians versus Morley Town, that ticked the boxes, and having read some positive reports from people who’d been to Ealandians both recently and over previous seasons, I was keen to go and have a look. To be honest though, I’ve only ever been to Elland a couple of times before in my life and both visits were quite a few years ago. Once to the wonderfully named Old Earth football ground, the home of Huddersfield Amateurs, and the other being the Halifax Irish home on the road out towards Siddal.

So, not being overly familiar with the town, I rocked up at the Elland Cricket Club home of Ealandians and grabbed a parking space. Turns out there was a Wake on in the Cricket Club bar, I found that out as I waltzed in to get a pre-match pint. I think for a few the drink had taken hold and the fact a complete stranger had turned up was of no concern to them at all, taxi’s kept arriving, I kept out of the way and sat back as people departed, as send offs go, God rest whoever’s soul it was, it looks like they had a good one.

What a lovely place to watch football it is, set up on high ground, with lovely views out over the general Halifax area, the pitch sits at the far end of the cricket ground and I suspect has something of an overlap onto the outfield. Flanked by a large wall on two sides, it does have a somewhat enclosed feel to it, but from a furniture perspective, none of that, and why should there be, in my opinion it would just spoil the location.

So we had a lovely location, but what about the game?

To be fair it was an entertaining encounter with the lowly visitors not making life easy for Ealandians at all. Twice Morley took the lead but playing up the slope Ealandians kept battling back and went in at the break leading 3-2.

The second half was largely one way traffic, with the hosts spending large parts camped in the Morley half of the pitch, but despite creating plenty of chances the goal that would have given them some daylight never came. As the game moved into the final minutes, sniffing an equaliser, Morley went on the offensive but couldn’t find a way through.

The victory all but sealed a top three finish for Ealandians and what should hopefully be a deserved promotion place for a great little club with a lovely home.

I can’t say as the journey back was quite as scenic as the one I made to get to Elland, what with it being all M62 and M1 back to Derbyshire, but, what I didn’t realise at the time was that three days later I’d be back in Elland again, less than a couple of hundred yards away from the home of Ealandians.

More on that later…….