And so to
Packwood Road in the Black Country, and The Beeches, the home of Tividale FC.
Today's visitors drawing the veil on the regular season are Sheffield FC in the
Evostik Northern Premier League Division One South.
The Dale was formed in 1954 as the senior branch of Tividale Hall Youth Club
FC, originally competing in the Handsworth & District League before moving
on to the Warwickshire & West Midlands Alliance. In 1966 the club joined
the newly formed West Midlands (Regional) League Division One, and was promoted
to the Premier Division in 1973.
The club moved to its current ground in 1974 but were demoted to Division One
in 1991 after falling foul of a new league ruling that required all Premier
Division clubs to have floodlights, which they could not afford to erect. Two
years later the floodlights were put up, the team finished second and were promoted
back, but in the same year the Midland Football Alliance was created so the
club was back to where it started.
The 2010/11 season saw The Dale run away with the Premier Division and with that came promotion to the Midland Football Alliance. In 2013/14 on a platform of a record breaking start of 13 consecutive wins the club swept all aside to storm to the title and earn promotion to the Evostik Northern Premier League Division One South. A respectable 8th place was earned in their inaugural season but the club had to win an off field Ground Grading appeal hearing at Wembley to retain their position in the league. Sadly it has only been a stay of execution as Tivi will finish bottom of the pile this time.
Sheffield
FC's nickname is 'The Club', and they are renowned for being 'The World's First
Football Club'. The club was set up by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest on
24 October 1857 at Parkfield House in the Sheffield suburb of Highgate,
although the original headquarters was a greenhouse.....
Initially Sheffield FC games were played among club members - 'Married v
Singles', or 'Professionals v The Rest'. Creswick and Prest drew up the club's
rules of play, 'The Sheffield Rules' - and along with near neighbours Hallam
FC, 'The Countrymen', formed in 1860, they take part in 'The Rules derby', the
oldest still contested football derby in the world. FA rules were only adopted
in 1878. 2nd January 1865 saw the first fixture outside Sheffield - the club
playing at Nottingham in an 18 a side game under Nottingham rules. The decision
was then taken to play only teams from outside Sheffield, and on 31 March 1866
they played London losing by 2 goals and 4 touchdowns to nil.
The Club entered the FA Cup in 1873, but thereafter there was a decline from
the top echelon with the advent of professionalism. Sheffield FC retained its
amateur status and suggested to the FA the introduction of an FA Amateur Cup,
which was inaugurated in 1893 and which Sheffield won in 1904. After one season
in each of the Yorkshire and Midland Leagues, the club reverted back to local
leagues, before rejoining the Yorkshire League in 1949. They then joined the
Northern Counties East League in 1981, before promotion to the NPL Division 1
South in 2007 - their 150th anniversary.
The Club have played at Strawberry Hall Lane Park, Newhall Athletic ground, Old
Forge, Hunters Bar, Abbeydale Park, Hillsborough Park, Owlerton and the Don
Valley Stadium. Current home is the Coach & Horses ground, including the
adjoining pub, in Dronfield, which was bought in 2001, and previously the home
of Norton Woodseats FC.
In 2004 The Club were awarded the Centennial FIFA Order of Merit for services
to football and maintenance of its values - Integrity, Respect and Community;
the only other recipient was Real Madrid. And in 2007 The Club was inducted
into the English football Hall of Fame on its 150th anniversary. This season
has seen The Club launch a £6m crowd funding appeal to finance a new stadium in
the Olive Grove area of Sheffield. Meanwhile an undistinguished campaign in the
league results in a 17th place finish, just five places above today's hosts.
Past a reopened Barmy Sarnie,
then Code to Exit (a gaming shop rather than Altrincham's version of Dignitas
!) I find the roadworks have moved up to the Navigation - more Saturday
lunchtime chaos. Thankfully the rest of the journey to the motorway is event
free. The M6, smart motorway and yes last week's sighting of a workman was an
isolated incident.... Just a flashing van, and a cretin doing 30 on the hard
shoulder which he then tries to replicate in the middle lane - definitely not
smart !!
PIES graffiti, a taxi simultaneously under and overtaken, pleasingly on one
side by a Whinfell Whippets van, and then two cars swapping motorways at the
M5/M6 interchange - madness !! Two junctions down and it's off onto the A4123,
a Sandwell tropical traffic island, a foreign articulated lorry mounting the
pavement and follow the signs for Merry Hill, Black Country Museum and Dudley
Zoo. On the right is something called the Black Country Urban Forest before a
left up the steep hill that is Trafalgar Road leads to Packwood Road and The
Beeches.
Tividale FC
renamed the ground The Beeches in honour of the British Waterways official who
had granted the site's lease to the club. The ground is situated in a (then)
newly developed residential street on the Tividale Hall Estate, on land
previously inaccessible to motor vehicles. There is sufficient car parking
inside despite the Wilfreda Beehive minibus traversing several spaces. As a
special incentive it's back to 2013/14 prices so a fiver in :)
Inside the near end supports the Social Club and in the corner a Quarantine
Area - no I've no idea why !! At the side is a concrete standing area with the
banking side fenced off and behind is the residential estate from which a cat
and two men, one in his garden and the other from a shabby tree house, watch
proceedings - tellingly all have given up by half time....
The far end is out of bounds, supposedly, and holds a mini artificial pitch and
several abandoned yellow seats. A pensioner in a high vis vest is posted behind
the goal and in front of the hedging to retrieve the ball. The near side is all
covered, with terracing, two 12 seater directors boxes and then two rows of
benched seating from the halfway line to the corner flag - the A4123 runs
directly behind. The pitch has a distinct slope from right to left.
There is a
minute's applause before the match for a recently deceased ex committee member;
Tividale are in yellow and blue, The Club in red with a black diagonal stripe.
The bright Spring sunshine has given way to a duvet of cloud and the first
period has a distinctly end of season feel to it, despite Sheffield FC's barmy
army and their bizarre 'Shoes Off' and 'We're All Going On A European Tour'
songs.
The Club's Brian Cusworth and Mo Hamid blaze over, and Dale produce little
other than one dangerous cross; their 25 goal top scorer Chris Sterling is
largely anonymous. Then Tivi's captain and keeper, Tom Turner, makes a superb
triple save from The Club's Alex Pursehouse before Hamid's deflected shot finds
Cusworth unmarked and he heads home to give the visitors an interval lead.
Half time sees my neighbour regale us with the tragic story of the recent death
of one of his mates from a drug overdose - 'He was only 44/45 - funeral's on
Wednesday'. Talk about oversharing......
The start of the second period sees Dale's best chance as Shaquille
Leachman-Whittingham is played in but his shot hits the post and Shane
Grainger's follow up is blocked on the line. The Club respond by hitting the
side netting twice and then Alex Denton is given acres of space to slot home
number two.
The season meanders to a close with Sheffield sub Jordan Turner hitting the
post then having a goal disallowed leaving it 2-0 to the Club at the end and
the Dale down, barring ground grading failures or resignations from the league.
The Purple Army of Daventry Town had resigned from the league, but dutifully
filled the second relegation spot anyway - and Loughborough Dynamo live to
fight another day, just !! :)
