Tags
(Williams, Andrews, Connolly, Cup, Dublin, Football, Gleneagles, Highfield, Jamu, Leavis, Leicestershire, patrocinio, Peter, Preston, Rangers, Round, St, Trevor
Thursday 29th September 2011 ko 7.15pm (although it actually kicked off at 7.30)
Leicestershire Senior Cup First Round
HIGHFIELD RANGERS 2 (Jamu 51 Patrocinio 54)
ST ANDREWS 5 (Williams 11 Trevor 20 Connolly 42 48 Preston 87)
Att 41 (h/c)
Entry £3
No programme
Another trip to Leicester, this time to Gleneagles Avenue, home of this decidedly Afro-Caribbean club who ply their trade in the top division of the Leicestershire Senior League. A bit of a do at the gate as I tried to pay for Lee and I with a tenner, to discover that the gateman had precisely no change, it set the tone in a way…
The ground is typical of the league, railed, floodlit (but with quite a few bulbs missing), cover but no seats. There’s a decent enough clubhouse, and to be honest I’d have written off the whole thing as an unremarkable “tick” but then I found the echoes.
For a start this is the club that nurtured a young Emile Heskey before he moved on to Leicester City and stardom (of a sort). On gaining the teams I visited the officials room, and on the way discovered the quite wonderful graffiti-style art hidden to most. Add to that the visitors’ manager, Clem Dublin, Deon’s younger brother and you have a demonstration of the power of the community football club.
St Andrews are having a good season one level above Highfield, in the East Midlands Counties League and claimed a notable FA cup scalp of St Neots the previous weekend. Trouble is they had 9 out injured for this encounter. Nevertheless they soon rattled up a substantial lead, and then well you’ve read the script, they tried to sit on it. And Highfield gave it a real go, two goals in quick succession, and if one shot had have been just an inch or two lower, who knows……