Diary of a Ground Hopper
GOOLE 0 SILSDEN 2
When leafing through the fixtures for Tuesday night, I initially cannot understand the relatively narrow choice of games until I realise most clubs had played on Bank Holiday Monday. My existence is such that the days blur into one, so I hadn’t clicked!
There are still a few bits and bobs to go at, though, including a fixture that allows me a day out on the Yorkshire Coast to blow away the cobwebs. The Fox indicates he would also like to come along if I am going for a day out, so I inform him we will be ending up at Goole after a trawl of nature reserves around The Humber.
On a leaden-skied evening, I pull up right outside the Victoria Pleasure Grounds – for that is what Goole’s Stadium is rather grandly called now – in my Hoppermobile about an hour before kick-off. The stadium is surrounded by old-fashioned terraced houses; none of those trendy new apartments being built around Wimbledon and Brentford’s grounds up here thank you very much!
After paying £6 at the gate, with another £2 for the programme, I enter the stadium and survey the wide open space inside. The obvious features are a concrete water tank and a phallic-looking red brick tower rising up behind the main (seated) stand. There is a new-looking running track around the perimeter with a reasonable-sized covered terrace opposite the main stand. Very dark storm clouds are gathering in the warm ups.
Spectators enter behind one goal. Here can be found the small teabar and the compact and bijou club shop. The clubhouse is situated behind the main stand and it has to be said that it has seen much better days. Everyone seems very friendly.
Tonight’s visitors for this Northern Counties East Premier Division clash are Silsden, a cross country round trip of about 120 miles and three hours spent in the hired minibus. I begin to say to The Fox that Silsden have come a long way but then realise we have travelled much further today!
The first half is extremely poor. Neither side really looks ‘up for it’. It is the visitors who settle quickest and really start to pressure their hosts. Goole’s only tactic seems to be hit and hope to the big man up front but it isn’t working in any way, shape or form.
Silsden score a couple of deserved goals before the break and it should have been four or five. The Vikings are much better in the second half but their finishing is woeful. Silsden aren’t any better in front of goal and the score remains the same as at the break. A disappointing, low-key match but I do like this place.
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