A lazy end of summer evening at Basford, pronounced Baseford, to see an F.A. Trophy Qualifying game between Basford and Gresley.
As often the case the week when the children go back to school is glorious after an iffy 6 weeks holiday weather. It was no different this year with the temperature at 26.5 degrees at Basford at 19.30 in the evening with clear blue skies and no wind or breeze.
Basford has become part of greater Nottingham, North West of the city centre, at the end of the tram system and not far from the M1. Basford United’s ground is in a housing estate which when you drive into the ground opens up to a large carpark. There are training pitches one side and at one end a row of tall poplars trees and bushes that hide the passing Midland Mainline trains and the Nottingham trams.
The facilities are a bit all over the place with a pitched roof one storey club house and flat roofed changing room on one side which also has a small covered seating area in the middle. There is another seated stand behind one goal and plenty of tarmacadam standing all round. I bought a coffee in the ample clubhouse but could not see anywhere to buy food, a serving place next to the bar was in darkness. The synthetic crumb pitch was very even.
Because this was an F.A. Youth Cup game the crowd was much younger that usual, made up of families and friends of players. A great turnout of 170 were well relaxed taking in the warmth, making it a social gathering as well as a football match.
There is only 30 miles between the two teams homes, Basford Senior team playing in the Northern Premier League, Premier Division and Gresley’s in the Northern Premier League, Midland Division, one lower than their hosts.
The F.A. Youth cup was first played for in the 1952/53 season for under 18’s teams that were affiliated to the F.A. Many of our most famous professionals have played in the cup and the most prolific winners have been Manchester United. One of the highest ranked teams in the country usually win it but as with the F.A. Cup smaller clubs enter to showcase their skills and hopefully progress to play a glamour tie.
Basford United U 18’s v Gresley Rovers U 18’s
Monday 4th September 2023 F.A. Youth Cup Preliminary Round
Basford: All yellow kit Gresley: All royal blue kit.
Basford were off like a train and within 5 minutes Marley Brown ran past static defenders drew and beat goalkeeper to give them the lead.
Gresley weathered the storm for the next 19 minutes but with Basford’s back four looking strong and their forwards skilfully and tricky. The floodlights came on early as it was dark by 20.00 pm, although we are having a good hot spell the signs are there that winter in on its way.
It was Marley Brown again who doubled his and the home teams tally when he came in from the right to roll the ball onto the goalkeepers legs and the ball then hit an away player and into the net. Just on half time the Gresley keeper made a brilliant point blank save to keep them in the game.
Within 5 minutes of the restart I felt very sorry for Gresley’s goalkeeper when Basford’s Desmond Saane ran across goal area and hit a clever shot back across the goal face. The keeper diving to his left had it covered as it hit the post but rebounded and hit his back trickling across the goal line for 3 nil. Cue wild celebrations including the Basford substitutes running on the pitch. Obviously a popular scorer but the subs were lucky not being booked for encroaching onto the playing area without permission.
Gresley did not give up or disgrace themselves and after the third goal looked a lot better. Their individual skills kept pressure on the home team
With one minute left of normal time Gresley’s number 10 found a lot of space on the right of the goal and from 30 yds out hit the ball over the goalkeeper into top left hand corner for a
deserved consolation goal. A few minutes of added time soon passed and Basford went through to a deserved home tie in the next round.
Siting behind the goal in the first half I kept seeing people walk by with chips. I explored at half time to find a food hut in the corner of the ground, the freshly cooked chips were hot, tasty, golden, crispy and didn’t taste of the greasy smell in the cabin. They were the best this season so far with a score of 70. For a price of £2 there was a good quantity, the large portions were immense.
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