A few weeks ago I bumped into the Allenton United coaching staff at Moorways as myself and my father were hunting for a local game to watch (like many matches on that particular day the game was called off for a waterlogged surface). The assistant coach told be how this was going to be the final season for the Allenton team as they were going to concentrate of the kids and youth set-ups. I thought it only fitting to try to get to a game before they were wound up.
Allenton play in the Midlands Regional Alliance (tier 12). It is a league for teams in the East Derbyshire, South Derbyshire, East Staffordshire and Northwest Leicestershire area and is a feeder league for the Central Midlands League. The league could be considered the 'premier standard' of parks football. Any attempt to become 'tier 11' requires demonstration of being a 'club' as opposed to being 'just a team'. Tier 11 requires a recognisable 'club' structure which includes dedicated facilities and pitch. Allenton have actually played in the higher league but the pressures of support and funding have not been kind to them and they have never been able to grow as they would have liked.
At the time of writing Allenton could be ranked as the 7th team (who play home matches) in Derby. They sit behind Derby County, Mickleover Sports, Borrowash Victoria, Belper United, Graham Street Prims and Mickleover RBL. This being the case, seeing today's game meant that I would have seen all seven top Derby teams play home football games.
Today (11/03/2017) Allenton (2nd) took on Shirebrook Rangers (7th) on an adjacent pitch to the Moorways Stadium. It was nice to see the stadium itself being used for a local under 16's footballing cup final.
The game itself was 'agricultural' (with 3 players having to limp off) but Allenton were deserving of their 3:1 win. Their standout players were the number 9 who started out up front and ended up on the left, the number 10 who held and played the ball off well, the number 7 who ran and ran and got stuck in and the little number 12 who came on as a substitute up front - one could tell that he had played at a higher standard at his pomp.
There were some dubious and lenient decisions made by the referee. Two of those were made at the score of 0:0 in the first-half. The first was when the Shirebrook striker was played through, and as he bore down on goal was clattered from behind, nineteen yards out. The decision? Yellow card. A sending of at any higher standard would be expected. Another dubious decision was when the referee assumed the Shirebrook 'keeper had handled outside the box. He actually ignored the better placed linesman who told him that the goalkeeper had not committed a foul.
The four goals (all in the second-half ) are described thus:
1:0 Allenton's number 9 picked up the ball on the left and, cutting inside and passing a defender, fired his shot from the corner of the 18 yard box across the 'keeper and into the bottom corner of the net.
2:0 The aging number 12 calmly slotted home from inside the 6 yard box, past the 'keepers left hand at the near post.
2:1 A simple ball over the top of the Allenton defence was chased down by the number 11, after beating the offside trap. The striker nicely clipped the ball past the onrushing 'keeper from the edge of the box.
3:1 A lovely through pass from number 10 into the box was met by the number 6, and 8 yards after beating a defender, slotted the ball home.
Today was an interesting experience. It was good to be able to compare tiers 11 and 12. Watching tier 12 games, however, is not something that I shall be pursuing as a matter of course.
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