Stamford 3-2 Sutton Coldfield Town

My sporting day got off to a dreadful start today and went downhill from there. The one high point of the day was the chance to tick off a new ground and watch a decent match between two sides chasing the playoff places in the Evo Stick division one south (Step 4)
After a decent all day drinking session in Nottingham yesterday i spent the morning following the second test match between Pakistan and England. England were set a very modest 145 to win but managed to collapse and were skittled out for 72 meaning we are 2-0 down in the series with only one match still to play. Plenty for the best team in the world to think about and much improvement to be made to avoid a 3-0 whitewash there is.

Stamford is in the South of Lincolnshire and is about an hour from Retford. Their ground, the wonderfully named "Premier Kitchen Arena", is just off the motorway and right next to the train station. The ground is set in a quite scenic location and looks over the town. From the ground you get a view of 5 churches not many football clubs can make a claim like that can they? It was £8 entry fee and £1.80 for a programme which was a decent enough read. We had plenty of time to kill before kick off so we headed straight into the club bar. As i was still feeling rough from the night before i was only drinking Coke. The clubhouse is large enough with plenty of old pennants from across non league football on the walls. There is even a picture of local hero darts player Martin "Wolfie" Adams when he played an exhibition here. From the clubhouse you get a very good view of the pitch. The Liverpool v Manchester United FA Cup match was on TV but i found watching the players warm up/reading the programme/anything else really much more interesting that watching that. I believe Liverpool won, but a rats arse i do not give.

The ground is quite old fashioned and i must say that i quite like it. After you enter the ground through the turnstiles you enter the main stand where the programmes are on sale on a small table on the righthand side. The clubhouse is to the right of the stand. The entrance of which is round the back of the building. There is a hatch in the clubhouse that sells food and stuff in one end and although i didn't eat anything the food looked and smelt quite good. I nipped out to the clubshop and bought a club badge for £3.50. Stamford have a pretty smart club crest but sadly this isn't on this seasons metal badges which is a shame as it is one of the better designed club crests. Instead the badge on sale has a gold football in the middle with Stamford FC written around it. The shop is quite good with loads of club badges from various clubs and lots of boxes of old programmes from a wide range of clubs, a hoppers paradise if you will. It was too cold for me though so i resisted the temptation to rummage and headed back to the warmth of the bar and my soft drinks. The bloke on the gate had told us that this was the oldest football ground in England but i am sure that Hallam FC would have something to say about that.

It would appear that Grantham Town are the clear favourites to win the Evo stick south with only really Carlton Town in with a chance of stopping them. The battle for the playoffs though is wide open however. Before kick off Stamford sat in the last playoff place with the visitors two points and one place behind having played one game more. The "Daniels" started the season with former caretaker manager Simon Clarke in charge but he left a month or so into the season to take over the reigns at Worksop Town. The team seem to have been unaffected by this and pushed on under former Hucknall and Carlton Town gaffer Tommy Brookbanks. I didn't recognise any of the names on the teamsheet for either side apart from the Sutton Coldfield assistant manager Neil Tooth who had a spell as assistant manager at Retford United a couple of seasons ago.
Apart from the main stand the only other cover is standing area on the opposite touchline that covers half of that side of the ground. There isn't any covering behind either goal but there is plenty of room to build should the club chose to do that. Although the gateman did tell us that the club are looking to move away from their current home. Moving grounds seems to be flavour of the month with Lincolnshire clubs at the moment; with Boston, Gainsborough, and Lincoln all looking to relocate in the next few years or so. In Lincoln's case i think it would be great for the club, but i will only believe it when i see work on the ground starting and not just talking about it.

As you would expect for two clubs so close in the table there wasn't much between the two sides for much of the match as they cancelled each other out for much of the game. Chances were few and far between for both sides but it was Stamford that drew first blood in the 30th minute when Bruno Holden finished off some neat work in box to score with a cool finish low into the net.
They managed to protect the lead for all of two minutes. The hosts conceded a freekick about 20 yards out when Mark Bellingham took advantage of the keepers positioning to fire the ball home. The Stamford keeper  is a rather large fellow which prompted my travel companion to shout "If that was a burger you would have caught it keeper wouldn't you? " And he probably would, the burgers from the snap hut did look rather nice. It stayed 1-1 till halftime which on the balance of play was about right. There had been plenty of effort from both sides but bar the two goals very little in the way of chances created. Hopefully the second half would be better. Elsewhere the Imps were 1-0 down away to Kettering having conceded yet another penalty. Our two match unbeaten streak was in real danger of coming to an end. It was getting a tad nippy so we headed to the foot hut for a hot drink. I went for the bovril at £1 and it was just what the doctor ordered.

The second half started in the pretty much the same vein as the first with much of the game being bogged down in midfield. Both sides were trying to get the ball down and play but the pitch didn't make passing football easy. Sutton Coldfield took the lead on 67 minutes through Joel Fuller when he took advantage of some poor defending from Stamford and from then on the game opened up as the hosts finally managed to get their wingers into the game and stretch the visitors back four.

Stamford restored parity in the on 76th minute. Luke Garton blasted a shot against the bar from 35 yards out with the keeper beaten all ends up; the ball came down to Bruno Holden who was left with a simple header into the empty net for his second goal of the game.
It got even better for the Daniels two minutes later when they took the lead. The Stamford winger on the right got past the full back and hit in a low cross that caught the keeper in two minds, the cross was flicked on and Holden arrived at the back post to complete his hatrick much to the delight of the Stamford Ultras behind the goal. Town pushed forward in search of the equaliser but as they did they left gaps at the back and allowed Stamford the chance to run at them. If any side was going to add to the score then it was Stamford but a combination of good goal keeping and poor finishing kept the score at 3-2.  Both sides put in some hard but fair challenges which meant that the physios spent a fair bit of time on the pitch, which was no bad thing given that the Town Physio was a nice looking young blond haired lady. The downside to this was the fact that the ref added quite a large amount of stoppage time which when it is bloody cold isn't really what you want.

The win gives Stamford a bit of breathing space to the teams chasing the playoff positions. All in all Stamford is a cracking day out with a decent old school type if ground, good club bar and friendly people. If you haven't been yet then get down there now before they move.

One more interesting thing about the club is the story of how they acquired the nickname "The Daniels". The nickname is in honour of a man that at the time was the fattest man in Britain a Mr Daniel Lambert who lived between 1770 and 1809. At his largest he weighed 52 stone. He is buried in Stamford hence the nickname "The Daniels" Is it great how football throws up this kind of weird and wonderful fact?

Later on in the evening the Nottingham Panthers did give me something to smile about when the recorded a fine 6-1 win over the Coventry Blaze in Nottingham but it didn't really make up for that dreadful defeat for England and the disappointing 1-0 Imps defeat.