And so to The Venue at Park Hall, the home of FC Oswestry Town, who share facilities with The New Saints, for the North West Counties Football League Division One clash with Nelson FC, 'The Admirals' - naturally !!
FC Oswestry Town was formed in 2013 as a successor to Oswestry Lions, which had folded, and took the Lions' place in the Mercian Regional League Division One. The club finished third in their first season and was promoted to the Premier Division.
The following year Town won the Commander Ethelstone Cup, but the 2015/16 campaign saw the club win the quadruple - the Shropshire Challenge Cup, the Mercian Regional League Cup, retaining the Commander Ethelstone Cup and champions of the Mercian Regional League Premier Division.
Winning the latter title earnt the team promotion to the North West Counties Division One, and a 15th place finish in their debut season. 15th is where they currently sit this time too, despite losing 12 of their first 13 matches.
Nelson FC was founded in 1881, joining the Lancashire
League in 1889 and becoming champions in 1896. The club folded during the
1898/99 season and was expelled by the Lancashire FA. Having rejoined the
League in 1900, the club again closed down in 1916 with bailiffs called in.
Having reformed in 1918 and entered the Central League, the Admirals became founder members of the Football League Division 3 North in 1921. Promotion to Division 2 followed in 1923, and the side embarked on a Spanish preseason tour which saw them beat Real Madrid 4-2 !
Sadly the club was relegated after only one season, and against a backdrop of struggling form, falling attendances and growing debt (even a fund raising carnival lost £20 !) the team finished bottom of the League in 1931. They failed to win re-election and were replaced by Chester City. Having dropped into the Lancashire Combination the Admirals folded once more in August 1936 due to crippling debts.
Hastily reformed as Nelson Town the new club entered the local Nelson & Colne League in which they played up to the start of World War II. After a further reformation in 1946 and rejoining the Lancashire Combination, the Admirals were crowned champions in 1950 and again in 1952, the latter under the stewardship of Joe Fagan, who went on to manage Liverpool.
In 1971 the football club moved from its Seedhill base, home since 1905 and which also hosted the Nelson Admirals speedway team, to Victoria Park. Seedhill became a stock car racing venue, but was all but demolished when the M65 was built.
Nelson FC became a founder member of the North West Counties Football League in 1982 but was evicted in 1988 due to ground grading requirement failures. A four year sojourn in the West Lancashire League ended with readmittance to the NWCFL as Victoria Park, or Little Wembley as the locals christened it, was upgraded. The Admirals resigned from the league in 2010 but after a 12 month 'sabbatical' returned and were promoted to the Premier Division in 2014. Last time around only Cammell Laird finished below Nelson, prompting a return to Division One. This season the Admirals have fared even worse and currently sit rock bottom.
Setting out against a backdrop of gunmetal grey sky it's
straight into roadworks, a lane closure and traffic chaos. Then past the giant
carved wooden eagle at the dental practice on Manchester Road and through
Altrincham town centre with its £16,000 4 metre monolith aka vanity project
that tells us Altrincham has been a market town since 1290, complete with
spelling mistake.....
On to the M56 with the rain teeming down and Stanlow refinery belching fumes and the wind turbines going like the blazes. Then the M53 which becomes the A55 and a turn onto the A483 before nine miles down the A5 - all surrounded by waterlogged fields.
Beyond Lion Quays, the Lord Moreton and over the Llangollen Canal, past Artillery Business Park and down Burma Road to The Venue at Park Hall. Disappointingly the former Grandad's Cafe advertising 'Ugly Staff, Beautiful Food' has closed :(
The Venue at Park Hall, in Whittington just outside Oswestry is a ten pin bowling and gym complex with a hospitality suite that leads through to a large balcony and seats overlooking the half way line. Next to it is a poor neighbour stand that covers the rest of the touchline, but the Black Hawk Laser Games behind it looks enticing....
At the far end is another stand that begins at the corner flag, continues behind the goal and then stops rather abruptly at the 18 yard line. Bizarrely, opposite the main stand, there is a further narrow mini grandstand that houses the press box on the second tier, the subs' benches on the first tier and the technical area on the ground and, er, that's it. The rest of the ground is flanked by trees - we are in the countryside after all !
Down to the main turnstile which is unmanned, and I find
I'm still slim enough to squeeze through, fiver in hand. The crowd is later
announced as 54 (plus one non-payer !!) with nine dotted round the ground and
46 on the balcony - 'it's just like being at the races' - which is presumably
where I was supposed to pay !!
Town are in blue and white, the Admirals in change green and black, and the near linesman is wearing gloves...and glasses ! The rain, which caused all bar three of today's fixtures to be postponed, has abated as the match gets underway, following tannoy announcements about drinking, smoking and standing.
The first half is one of Nelson's persistent fouling and moaning to the referee. Town, by contrast, try to play football on the AstroTurf but misplaced passing and poor control scuppers much of their play, failing to take advantage of the rear Admirals' leaky offside trap.
Nonetheless Louis Moss is just wide with a drive and Sam Spridgeon's swirling chip drifts just beyond the post, after Admirals' keeper Marcel Wusiewicz makes a complete mess, twice, of stopping a straightforward effort.
Nelson take the lead on 24 minutes from Chris Turner's penalty for a dubious handball, just after Town's appeal for a spot kick is (incorrectly) turned down. Turner has a shot deflected wide, after a Town error caused by overplaying just outside their own area, as we reach the midpoint - and a half time draw of £1 to win a box of biscuits, an offer certainly good enough to refuse !!
A minute into the second half the Admirals win a corner and the inswinging delivery is cleared off the line - just. Five minutes later Oswestry equalise through Moss from a lovely one-two. Thereafter craft and guile, never much in evidence in the first period, are replaced by graft and bile and it's a frustrating watch. Nelson's strongarm tactics, flare ups and some fairly awful football are complemented by atrocious officiating.
So it's a shock when Tse Nan Yue, aka Curtis (??!!), scores with a sumptuous effort into the top corner for the home side with twenty to go. Town hit the outside of the post via a deflection but normal service swiftly resumes.
Oswestry's defending becomes ever more desperate and brainless but they look to have survived until the fourth minute of injury time when the Admirals win another contentious free kick. The ball is swung in and Sam Holt's looping header goes beyond Town's portly custodian and captain Louis Mackin, to level it at 2-2. Judging by the celebrations you would have thought Nelson has won the World Cup - or beaten Real Madrid !! Two minutes later the away team win a corner, and the referee blows for full time.
Next weekend sees the reverse fixture but with drainage problems and the current weather, the Admirals' Little Wembley is likely to be under water.....
