And so this afternoon to the Oasis Academy, Hollins Lane in Hollinwood for a Manchester League Division Two clash between Hollinwood and Cavaliers. The reverse fixture, earlier this season, saw Hollinwood triumph 8-0.
Hollinwood Football Club's history dates back to 1877, but the forebearer of the present football team started in the 1950s playing as a Sunday League side. However the club as it is known today moved to a Saturday team in 1962 in the Rochdale Alliance League.
In the mid 1960s the club transferred to the now defunct South East Lancashire League where Wood remained until it took a step up to the Manchester League in the early 1970s. The 2005/06 season saw Hollinwood gain promotion to the Manchester League Premier Division, and this was followed by winning the Manchester County FA Challenge Trophy the season after.
Relegated in 2011 after conceding 131 goals in 30 games, Wood were further demoted to Division Two in 2018, with a two point deduction seeing them one point short of safety. They have languished, largely at the bottom end, ever since but this time boast a mid table record of six wins and four losses.
The club's home originally was on School Road, but moved to Lime Lane in 1914, before decamping to Chapel Road Playing Fields on Grammar School Road nearly a century later. The club now play at Hollins Lane on the 3G surface at the Oasis Academy.
Cavaliers, from the Athletics Track at Scholes Park in Gatley, are a new club in their first season in Division Two of the Manchester League - and it's been a turbulent journey. Ten games, ten defeats, goals for 7, goals against 114 - including 14-1, 15-0, 16-0 and 26-0 defeats, the latter against Avenue FC, where the club fielded a side lacking a goalkeeper (clearly !!) and only one defender (also obviously !!) which attracted press coverage and prompted a plea for new players.
Past the now seemingly shuttered Zymologists Sourdough Bakery and then The Vintage Wireless Company takes me to the M60, with numberplates W8A UP (bagged !), BTO4STY - presumably a heating engineer - and, for your blocked drains, T22 URD..... The motorway bridges provide Extinction Rebellion Revolution graffiti, and then that Crystal Methodist pyramid, RedRock, the Ark chimney and Denton Rock.
Off at Junction 22 onto Hollins Road, beyond The Edge, Flabelos and Fluffy Pups Dog Grooming. The Oasis Academy secondary school is on the left, betwixt the old Devon and Heron mills, with the astroturf pitch for a (strange) 1430 kick off - and plenty of parking.
There's a separate entrance for the sports side, with a basketball court, and this leads to the changing rooms and at the top end a 'stand' with several assembly rows where 6 kids (out of a total attendance of 8 - the others a home player's mum and yours truly) congregate. However the youngsters prefer to play their own game on the adjoining tarmacked area and disappear as the wind and swirling rain arrive in the second half. The academic complex building is adjacent and opposite a splendid (1897) Victorian building occupied by Smart Kids.
At 2pm Cavaliers, in change maroon and white, are warming up, but the 2.30 kick off comes and goes with no sign of the home team and questions of 'have you got the kits ?' Eventually one Hollinwood player, in all blue, arrives, briefly, to limber up. The match finally gets underway at 1458.
In the first minute Cavaliers' Kevell Blake bursts through but fires wide - perhaps a sign that the away side's mostly new squad will put up more of a fight this time. However on 10 minutes a through ball leaves the Wood captain in space and he calmly lifts the ball over the onrushing keeper for a composed finish to put the home side one up.
But for the rest of the half Hollinwood are disappointing - disjointed and sloppy, mustering only long range efforts which are comfortably fielded. Cavaliers start to pose a threat and really should have equalised from a header at a corner.
So perhaps not surprising that on 40 minutes they win a clear penalty which Blake converts for parity. Bizarrely the referee blows for half time a minute later - a half time that lasts just over 3 minutes...
Nine minutes into the second period Cavaliers have a second goal controversially ruled out and then go close twice. Wood also have opportunities with the lone warmer up slicing wide and an open goal from a header at a corner directed hopelessly wide - the Cavaliers' defence seemingly playing a game of musical statues for which nobody has brought a boombox.
Increasingly desperate, Hollinwood force three great saves from the Cavaliers' stopper but it all changes in the 36th minute of the half. Wood's left winger, who is now playing as a centre forward, hopefully shoots from outside the area and the ball skids off the surface, through the keeper's hands, into the corner of the net.
Desperate defending at the other end, a breakaway that sees the winning goalscorer have a shot deflected onto the outside of the post, and the referee blows up on 41 minutes again at 1623 for a 2-1 home win. A strange afternoon...... maybe the floodlights were only paid for till half past four ??
