The title to this blog is a bit of a dichotomy, the grass roots refer to the organisation of a football club that has a strong growing web of teams of all ages, abilities, sexes, and not to the pitch itself. In Dinnington the pitch is a modern artificial surface that allows all weather and all day play. It also has multi lined out pitches with 14 mobile goal mouths of all sizes. The senior team is benefitting from the money and effort that has been put in, with perhaps their stars of the future developing in the many junior teams.
I was last here on Christmas Eve last year and returned to see the finished ground with the new covered seated stand. With the stand finished and all of the other improvements I believe that Dinnington Town now meet the grading requirements to enable them to go up to another level.
You enter the ground via the Dinnington Resource Centre which was opened in 2000, a new building on the site of the old Colliery Institute. This is a self financing centre at the heart of the community which offers, function and meeting rooms, a FIFA approved 3G football pitch, a library (Rotherham Borough Municipal Council), a community cafe , home to Dinnington Pre-School group and a Post Office. There can’t be many football clubs that have such an association with a Post Office.
It was an amazing sunny day with clear azure blue skies, no wind but a cold 3 degrees. Parking right outside for a quick get away, was a bonus. I bought a coffee and took a seat in the new stand which looked like it could seat 100, overall the crowd looked to be getting on for that figure.
I have written before on Dinnington Towns’ history which goes back to 1908, with the current club reformed in 2019. They are looking to move up to their highest ever level.
The opposition Elite AFC were only started in 2020 as a Junior Academy with teams of all ages, last year entering the Central Midlands League gaining promotion to the Premier Division.
Dinnington Town FC v Elite AFC
Saturday 25th November 2023 Kick off 15.00.
Central Midlands League Premier Division North.
3rd v 7th Dinnington, bright yellow shirts black shorts; Elite, white shirts blue shorts.
The young Elite team were under pressure from the start but did cause some problems with quick counter attacks. Dinnington though did take the lead on 21 minutes when a player burst into the box to see his shot parried by the Elite keeper only for Ben Bertram to tap it in. Only 5 minutes later the Dinnington Manager was sent off for not agreeing with the referee over a potential penalty appeal and he walked off and sat next to me in the stand.
The day was so bright that the floodlights were not switched on until 33 minutes and a short while later a ball swung in from the right was met by Justin Circuit who headed it straight into the net. The goal was a que for some noisy boisterous fans to let off a flare. Dinnington played out the rest of the half and went in at halftime in command.
Elite had not given up and after some close play Jacob Tupling scored for them shooting from the edge of the goal area into the roof of the net. The home side restored their two goal lead on the hour when Ben Bertram scored.
With 71 minutes gone Elite, who had kept pushing, scored their second when Tommy Pallett ran through to hit the ball across the goalkeeper, hitting the post and rebounding into the net. The game was now any bodies except that a ‘worldy’ from 30 yards out on the right by Josh Baxter ended up in the top left hand corner for a 4.2 lead. Elite didn’t give up but Dinnington eased their way to the win and retained their third spot in the League.
Great to see the development of Dinnington’s facilities and their team responding to investment. Elite too showed that with some more experience they could well challenge for the title in the future.
I had a coffee to start the game and at half time queued up while some fresh chips were cooked. They were really good, crisp, golden, tasty, no after taste of oil and therefore a great score of 69.
payonthegate 