And so to Ruskin Drive Sports Ground and the Buildbase FA Vase, with St Helens Town AFC taking on Hemsworth Miners Welfare FC in the First Qualifying Round.
The original St Helens Town club was formed in 1901, playing at Park Road, behind the Primrose Vaults pub, although the players changed further down the road at the Black Horse. Playing in the Lancashire League and Lancashire Combination, the team initially prospered but struggled after World War 1 and folded midway during the 1928/29 season.
The Saints were reformed by George Fryer and a group of local businessmen in 1946, playing at the former cricket ground at Hoghton Road, Sutton. They took over local team Derbyshire Hill Rovers in April 1947 and entered the Liverpool County Combination.
Former German prisoner of war Bert Trautmann joined the club in the summer of 1948 and the following season Town entered the Lancashire Combination. Despite losing Trautmann to Manchester City in October 1949, the Second Division title was secured.
However after two relegations it was a return to the Lancashire Combination in 1956, a league they won in 1972, 9 points clear of Accrington Stanley (who are they ?!). A move across to the Cheshire League in 1975 was the forerunner to becoming a founder member of the North West Counties in 1982.
The Saints won the FA Vase in 1987, beating near neighbours Warrington Town 3-2 at Wembley, in a match more in keeping with the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final. Then, in 2000, the club left Hoghton Road, with the facilities quickly falling into disrepair and the site was sold for housing two years later. The Saints groundshared with St Helens RLFC at Knowsley Road for ten years but the intended relocation to Langtree Park never materialised. Subsequently they lodged with Ashton Town and then at Brocstedes Park, home of Ashton Athletic.
The club did hold the proud record of being the only team to play in the North West Counties top flight in every season until April 2015 when, on the last day, a Silsden injury time equaliser condemned them to relegation. Hopes for the 2015/16 season were to bounce back at the first attempt, and to move into a Council owned multi sports facility at Ruskin Drive in the town for 2016/17. Neither came to fruition.... and a disappointing 2016/17 followed, with 'home' games predominantly played at Valerie Park, home of Prescot Cables.
The long awaited move to Ruskin Drive finally happened at the start of this campaign. The first home game against Abbey Hulton ended controversially - with the game goalless going into injury time the visitors were awarded a penalty, the floodlights expired, suspiciously, and the match was abandoned with a League hearing this Wednesday. Five league defeats out of five completed league matches leaves the Saints next to bottom, without a point.
The visitors, Hemsworth Miners Welfare FC from
the Yorkshire NuBuilds Stadium in Fitzwilliam, began life in 1981
following the demise of Hemsworth Colliery FC the year before. The club
joined the Doncaster & District Senior League Division 3, and three
successive promotions took the Wells to the Premier Division in 1988.
Hemsworth won the Premier Division Cup in 1995 and then moved to the West Riding County League. Division 1 was won in the 1996/97 season, and in 2007/08 a fourth place finish in the Premier Division was enough to earn promotion to Division 1 of the Northern Counties East League. The Wells were crowned champions in 2015/16 to rise to the NCEL Premier Division. After an early FA Cup exit at the hands of Runcorn Linnets this season, Wells sit second in the league.
Last night's heavy rain caused several
postponements but the Saints' 3G pitch means this afternoon's tie
definitely goes ahead. So it's past Arnies Sarnies, Cowtown Grill and
the execrable T & T Pound Plus with its awful banner : 'HOUSE HOLD.
STATIONARY. TOILETORIES. ELCTRICAL'.
Onto the M60 and Smart Motorway, now extended by a further 6 months (not by popular demand), and this time featuring live workmen - a first !! Over Barton Bridge and then joining the M62 I pass a Nice-Pak lorry, 'The World's Most Innovative Wet Wipe Manufacturer', before turning on to the M6, where I leave at Haydock Park which is hosting the final day of the 32Red Sprint Cup Festival.
Finally down the East Lancs Road, turning at Windle, past a glorious flowerbed display at St Helens Crematorium. Beyond Heirs and Graces Day Nursery and the one way Denton's Green Lane which doubles back on itself; Ruskin Drive is a cul de sac on the left.
There's plenty of parking at Ruskin Drive Sports Ground, a 30 acre sports complex originally built in 1902 by Pilkington plc for use by its employees, and now run by St Helens Borough Council. There's also plenty going on - I walk past a rugby union match in progress, Ruskin Park RFC v Sefton (which finishes 70-0 to the home team), down some steps to a bowling green and this brings me to the cricket ground. Most spectators are in or around the Sticky Wicket Bar & Grub - and indeed it looks a sticky wicket in the middle as St Helens Town CC take on Prescot & Odyssey, which ends in a tie with both sides scoring 118 all out.
It's a dual entrance to get in - one side for the football (£5) and the other for the rugby league (£2) where Pilkington Recs are doing battle with Wath Brow Hornets, with Recs winning that one 36-24. The sports complex also features tennis courts and rounders pitches.
Inside it's a three sided ground with housing behind the goal at the top end, and, tied to the fencing, those two Hemsworth flags. One proclaims 'Poey is Innocent', a reference to an 'innocent' miner jailed during the Miners' Strike after an incident in Fitzwilliam, the birthplace of Geoff Boycott.
The left side is inaccessible with fencing and densely populated trees behind the dugouts, and the rugby union match going on behind them. The near end holds the changing rooms and bar, six St Helens Blue Army flags, and the cricket match beyond.
The popular side has a 200 seater covered At Cost stand and the rugby league match in the background. A fan is admonished for stopping in the 'No Standing in Front of the Seated Area' - I'm told a picture of a spectator stood in that area found its way to the League, who fined the club £50 !! In the stand is a slightly odd gentleman wearing sunglasses, shorts, sandals and...... gloves.
Saints are in all blue, Wells in change all
yellow. In front of a crowd of 77 ('71 paying' ?). The weather is bright
and breezy, and the football isn't. After a soporific half an hour, in
which the only highlight is play being stopped whilst a stray rugby ball
is retrieved from the pitch, Wells' skipper Luke Danville is allowed a
free header at a corner and the visitors lead. Thereafter Saints pose no
threat, with lone front man Joel Douglas increasingly isolated, and
Hemsworth start to play with the confidence of a team second in the
league.
Saints' keeper Adam Fairchild makes a smart stop from a deflected shot, but Rich Collier scores direct from the resulting corner for 2-0. Fairchild then makes two excellent saves, the second from point blank range, to keep Saints alive at the interval.
The Saints make a better fist of things in the second half, with early substitute Neil Weaver and half time introduction Shaun Brady catching the eye. That said Wells' custodian Jacob Collier is not unduly troubled. Indeed Wells continue to pose the greater threat and spurn several opportunities.
Nash Connolly volleys wide, Danville plants another header over the bar, Rich Collier goes close, some kamikaze defending sees the ball poked beyond the post and Wells waste a four on two, leaving manager Wayne Benn indignant that the game hasn't been put to bed.
Seven minutes from the end Weaver's, err, weaving run and shot is blocked by Jacob Collier and Douglas snaffles the rebound. Fairchild is sent forward for two corners in a last gasp attempt to take the tie into extra time but to no avail.
But there is one final chance for the Saints as, with virtually the last kick of the match, Brady is played in one on one. Surely he must score, but Jacob Collier somehow touches his shot onto the post and the ball is smuggled clear. The referee blows the final whistle and Wells are through.
