Yate 0 Bideford 1
Not for the first time this season, due to childcare commitments I arrived at tonight's game a minute or two after kick off. There was no need to fret though. My occasional side kick Bryan was in attendance to fill me in on the early exchanges. He also had a pint waiting for me. Thanks Bryan.
This was my first visit to Yate's Lodge Road, or to give it's formal title - The Jelf Stadium. Yate have been a Southern League club for the past 17 seasons. A recent highlight was reaching the first round proper of the FA Cup in 2012/13 where they eventually bowed out at the hands of localish football league side Cheltenham.
It was a beautiful summers evening and as I entered the ground and parted with my £9, I immediately knew I was going to enjoy the night. I'm a big fan of ever greens at football grounds and Lodge Road has some belters, so big they looked down on the flood lights. As I supped on my beer and inhaled the fresh South Gloucestershire air, the stresses of work and family life faded in to triviality. What a great thing a night at the football is.
I was looking forward to seeing tonights visitors Bideford in action again. Last season I'd spent a very enjoyable day at their Kingsley Road home that you can read about here. From the starting line ups, it was good to see Sean Downing in the Bideford team, he's been capped at England C level and ran the show when I saw them last year. Another big player for them last season - big Chris McGrath, son of ex Aston Villa and Irish international Paul has moved on to Taunton over the summer. Compared to Yate, the away teams bench looked pretty sparse - I counted 4 subs and no non playing staff apart from Sean "Who needs Mourinio we've got Sean Joyceio" Joyce the manager. Not surprising perhaps given that travelling from North Devon at rush hour would probably mean leaving work at about 3pm.
For Yate I was looking forward to seeing new signing Ben Brooks who featured on these pages last season whilst at Larkhall.
The teams looked evenly matched in the first half. The pitch was in fantastic condition and both sides took advantage of the playing surface, knocking it about nicely looking for an opening. Brooks looked lively for Yate in the number ten role but it was a set piece that came closest to delivering a goal. Yate's centre back, Norris came up for a corner and saw his firm header hit the bar and sail over. A few tackles were flying in but the female ref and her officials generally held the lid on things and the game had a decent flow to it.
The attendance was given as 153 and we heard a Yate fan muttering about the high turn out and wondering where all the new faces had come from: "Have we signed Edgar Davids over the summer or something?" What he probably didn't realise was that a large contingent had made the trek up from North Devon. At first we thought the four vocal fans behind the goal with the Bideford flags were the extent of the the travelling party. It turned out however that a large number of supporters on the touch line were also cheering on the Robins.
Most spectators tonight enjoyed the action from the side of the pitch which housed the main stand, the dug outs, the club bar, the tea hut and the changing rooms as well as the club shop. This could give the ground a lopsided feel but the majestic ever greens coupled with a covered terrace behind one of the goals make Lodge Road a fine place to watch football.
In the second half, the challenges began to get a bit stronger and the politeness shown to the officials in the first half faded away with both teams desperate to get their noses in front. The tall linesman on the dug out side started to get a bit of stick. After a Bideford penalty shout went unanswered he seemed to be smirking at some of the choice comments from a visiting fan. "And it's not funny either" was the angry response this got, "Yes it is" he fired back. Brilliant from the lino. He defused the incident and was quite happy explaining decisions and sticking up for his colleagues as the game went on and the managers were increasingly in his ear. An early contender for linesmaning performance of the season.
The deciding moment of the game would come on the hour mark. By this time we were behind the goal Bideford were attacking and chatting to the Bideford fans with the flags. This car load full made the effort to get to every away game and impressively got to all but 3 last season. Especially impressive as the designated driver amongst them works nights at weekends! Top man. As they explained the ferocity of the North Devon derby with Barnstable (a fixture I definitely want to get to one day), a corner came in from the right. It was headed skyward at the near post and as it came down, the under pressure keeper wasn't able to gather and it was bundled over the line by Craig Allan. Scenes behind the goal. A young fan next to us had a particularly exuberant celebration and star jumped over to two Yate fans at the back of the terrace to let them know how happy he was. He was pretty fired up to be fair. The Yate guys declined to react and seemingly looked on with a mixture of bemusement and fear.
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| Yate players protest but the goal is given. Bideford take the lead. |
Yate attempted to respond but Bideford continued to look a threat on the counter. Sean Downing though not as dominant as when I last saw him still showed flashes of brilliance. One mazy run ended with him some how riding a heavy challenge, staying on his feet and sending a curler aimed at the top corner just over.
A few niggly fouls and the general wiliness of Joyce and his men helped break up Yates rhythm. Though the home team bought on fresh legs and showed some good build up play, they struggled to create the clear cut chances they needed. At the other end Billy Tucker almost doubled the visitors lead, he raced on to a Downing flick on but saw his shot well saved by Rivers in the Yate goal.
1-0 at the final whistle. A hard fought game with plenty of quality from both teams, all played out on a lovely summers evening in a picturesque setting. Just what the doctor ordered.
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