ECCLESFIELD COME UP SMELLING OF ROSES WITH TEN GOALS

ECCLESFIELD RED ROSE 10 CHESTERFIELD TOWN 0
PRE SEASON FRIENDLY @ ISOBEL BOWER SPORTS GROUND ST GEORGES
18 JULY 2019 --- 7PM
There are one sided games and there are one sides games and this was well a one sided game!

OPENING GOAL FOR JAMIE RUSSELL

Sadly for Chesterfield Town their next game on Saturday at Kirton Brickworks cannot come quickly enough whilst Ecclesfield Red Rose want to enjoy this goal fest as they prepare for life in The Sheffield County Senior League Premier Division after last seasons promotion. 
With the chance of returning within some reasonable hour to base thanks to this start time a first visit to The FA St Georges Park at Westfield was on the cards and round 4 of The I Don't Do Pre Season Friendlies Cup.  Following a brief change of buses in spire town the stripey boys double decker dropped me off at Halfway tram terminus for the short walk onto the edge of both Mosborough and Westfield for tonight's neutral venue.

ARRIVED

The site is around 3 years old and approach signage directs you to The Isobel Bower Sports Ground named after a Sheffield City Councillor for Mosborough and it appears now developed under the FA grassroots hubs although it would appear run under franchisee, there is an on going debate on some of the grassroots twitter accounts with regards to the amount of money required for pitch hire when the facilities were supposed to be assisting the lower levels of the game, anyway that's for another day.

EARLY ACTION WITH RED ROSE ON THE ATTACK

Arriving an hour before kick off and undertaking a visit to the snack bar for crisps, pop and cookie it all started really healthily after having decided against a walk into the village for the old fisheries visit!  The pitches here consist of two 4g caged and a normal grass pitch plus smaller junior pitch, there is also two rugby pitches to compliment the site.  Much off the centre is smart, modern and new with the addition of a gym it all has a leisure centre feel about it, however there are a few references painted onto the walls about the football heritage of Sheffield which is around about five miles to the north west.  Sheffield is fortunate in having three centres and this one is the most southerly sitting on the Yorkshire/Derbyshire border with a large catchment area from some of the recent outer Sheffield developments.

ECCLESFIELD RED ROSE GO CLOSE

The game then and the ninety minutes would be undertaken on the full size grass pitch which was flat but not too green as you may have expected.  Ecclesfield gained runners up spot in league one and find themselves in step 7 next season for a real challenge, although judging by tonight's performance they have little to be concerned about.  Chesterfield Town had a difficult year in last seasons CMFL second tier since their transfer from The Midlands Regional Alliance and compete at the imaginary step 8 one below their hosts.

RUSSELL IN FLIGHT AS THE OPENING GOAL FLIES OVER THE LINE

As ever no attempt to gain teams was made so the report is brief with hopefully correct names gained from Rose's twitter account and Full Time so apologies if any have slipped up, it was a busy night.
Lets get the Chesterfield attack out of the way first the home keeper was called into a save one minute before half time but other than that the County Senior side dominated to lead 4-0 at the break after also hitting the woodwork on a couple of occasions.  The tally started after 8 minutes when Jamie Russell headed home the classic unmarked back post header then on the quarter of the hour mark Todd Guest headed into goal this time at the near post.  It was Guest who made it three with the sweetest of strikes on 32 minutes and just two minutes later a superb long throw off the left was turned home by Ryan McDonald.
The turn around did see Town compete more in the opening stages but on the hour mark normal service resumed McDonald got his second and completed his hat trick shortly after when he tapped the ball round the keeper and ran onto make no mistake with the shot home.

TODD GUEST WINS THE HEADER

On 72 minutes Luke Parkinson made it seven without reply and eight and nine provided a cameo for the impressive Carlton Carty, who was an excellent compliment to the more natural centre forward in Guest, firstly he lobbed the keeper with a delicate effort from the outside of his boot and then a super move saw him cut inside off the right to fire home.

CHESTERFIELD ARE STILL CHASING THE GAME

The best was, apparently, saved till the last Ryan Radford who has been with the club for years and nobody could remember scoring before [!] slotted home from 3 yards out after two excellent saves from the Chesterfield keeper.
Strange as this game was the last chance, as per the first half, fell to the visitors when they struck a post with two minutes remaining but really they had been out of the game for a long time at that stage.

ANOTHER RED ROSE CHANCE

Thanks to the Red Rose secretary for the catch up in the second half it was a pleasure to meet you and with the side looking to have a competitive squad and management that will serve them well, plus a programme issuing club it will be worth a visit to see them at their home base soon.
Return journey via the nearby Morrison's for Hoppers delight sandwich and fizzy before a connecting service saw a return to base just after a 11pm from another enjoyable evening out in the 2019/20 pre season.