PSF AT BARNES PARK
11 AUGUST 2020 --- 6.30PM
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| CALVER MAN OF THE MATCH HARLINGTON RACES THROUGH |
Dave Harlington hit an impressive four goals as Hope Valley League side Calver Fc secured their first win in the clubs pre-season campaign on a red hot evening in North Derbyshire. A brace in each half was enough to give the visitors a comfortable lead before Grassmoor secured a late goal to narrow the final score line.
Grassmoor Sports as a club would welcome a second Hope Valley side after last weeks outing against neighbours New Tupton Ivanhoe who make up a small collection of sides who compete in the league but are out of the 'natural' Peak District area of the competition, indeed Calver start their campaign in a month away to Pilsley Community in Stonebroom to bring the club back into the suburbs again. For the home side The Chesterfield Sunday League as of yet has no start scheduled with a meeting planned to decide this shortly.
On a humid and red hot night when moving your small finger was enough to bring you out in a sweat the twenty five minute walk to Barnes Park was undertaken with some trepidation but arrival was made fairly comfortably ten minutes before kick off.
During last season I found myself taking an increased interest in the grassroots levels below step seven and I have to say with local travel being the order of the day in pre-season and who knows for how long in the current climate the response from all the clubs to fixture questions has been fantastic and I include tonight's visitors in this comment.
Towards the end of last seasons there was a move by The Hope Valley League after a decimated season due to the wet weather to complete fixtures and clubs who had not played home or away would take on an emergency fixture by playing both games on a one hour basis with a small break in between. To that unique effect I had planned to take in what turned out to be the final game at Calver before the season was curtailed but this didn't happen for me.
Calver as a village was always a journey towards the Peak District with my parents and my auntie and uncle as a youngster and going through the crossroads it always seemed like a start of the journey and when you came back through a return to nearly home territory, plus there was always the chance of calling back at The Eyre Arms for pop and crisps. As an aside to that the garden centre and sweet shop outside serving Bradwells ice cream made the former more bearable.
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| MORE ACTION WITH A RIGHT WING CROSS IN THE FIRST HALF |
So to tonight's game both sides I guess will make changes in personnel and positional play the visitors came to this game off the back of a 3-3 draw at home to Railway and as a club Sports from a home loss to Ivanhoes. As ever its more or less impossible to trouble sides for teams with changes as well in pre-season games so apologies for any poor spellings etc.
Grassmoor started strongly and Calver looked out of sorts this may have been the warm travelling conditions that had made it difficult to start refreshed but just past the quarter of an hour mark it was the visitors who took the lead when the home keeper misplaced his clearing pass and Harlington nipped into to fire home his first of the game. More or less immediately Sports were level a foul just inside the box allowed the ever youthful former Chesterfield player David Hoole the chance to convert from the spot. A convincing finish from a player who clearly showed his pedigree tonight after his professional career at Saltergate in the eighties.
It would be the visitors who went into the break with a one goal advantage when Harlington was again alert on hesitancy in the home defence and he raced on to round the keeper before firing into the empty net.
As the heat continued to beat down Grassmoor were level within three minutes of the re-start with their second penalty converted this time by Toby Dawes. As the goals flowed it was a move with an identical descriptor which was finished off by a text book header from Harlington to complete his hat trick following a lovely cross from Littlewood. He made it four on 53 minutes when Owen set up the frontman to convert comfortably. It looked a great move to show the Hundall cricketer a strikers role and having seen club at Ashover Barbarians a few weeks ago a bit of research found that it was the only game he had not tuned out for so far for this season.
The game drifted away a little in the closing stages from the visitors point of view as Grassmoor continued to play some lovely football and their efforts were well rewarded by a lovely cross goal shot that flew in at the far corner by the number 5.
A morale boosting victory for Calver with the star of the night Harlington claiming the man of the match performance by virtue of his four goals.
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| FIRST HALF BALANCING ACT |
With the light fading more sharply than lastThursday night the final whistle brought the chance for a take on of water for the players who had displayed fantastic resilience to the conditions in this pre-season game that had provided some entertaining football and a chance to catch up with another Hope Valley League side.
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| SECOND HALF ACTION WITH CALVER ON THE ATTACK |
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