Saturday 8th July 2017 ko 14.30

Pre-season friendly

COSMOS UK 0

BROMLEY HEATH UNITED 6 (Nolan 15 20 62 Britton 62 Greenaway 72 Mitchelmore 80)

Att 6 at BAWA Club, Stanton Road, Filton, Bristol

Free Entry

The great advantage of an early kickoff was that it allowed a double with just about anything in Bristol. The only issue was that with family there, and a hop in the Western League, there isn’t much I hadn’t already paid a visit to. It needed me to travel to the Cosmos!

If a groundhopper wants to see just how low down the pyramid you can go the places to go are Mid Sussex, Stround and Bristol. Take Cosmos UK for example, they play in the Bristol & Suburban League. That’s a feeder to the Gloucestershire County League which is at Step 7. Cosmos play in the BSC League Division 3 having won Division 4 last season. But the league has an odd divisional numbering system, it’s Premier 1 then Premier 2, then Divisions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. That would place Cosmos at a nominal Step 12, their opponents at Step 9… I really do need to attend a Division 5 game…

Part of the attraction was this wasn’t being played at the hosts’ usual ground. Cosmos normally play at Muller Road, but with the ground being redeveloped for the next 2 years the club are on the lookout for a new home. It could be here at the BAWA club, but then again, it might not!

The other intriguing thing was the location. I will always tend to associate Filton with aviation and the BAWA Club is foresquare in the centre of it, with its roots in the British Airplane Company. The Bristol Aeroplane Company Welfare Association was founded in 1942 to provide a centralised service for sickness pay and sports and social activities for employees of the Company. It eventually metamorphosed into the Bristol Aeroplane Company Welfare Association, BAWA for short. The facilities here are testament to the company’s success.

And as if to illustrate both points, with this game right at the northern edge of the facility, there was a view one way of a Polish team playing another friendly, and a cricket match closer still to the clubhouse. Turn around and you could see the British Aerospace factory on the southern edge of the Filton Airfield, currently home to a retired Concorde.

Cosmos clearly have been influenced by the New York Cosmos club of the 70’s and 80’s, their badge is almost identical to the iconic American team’s logo. Of course far too much tends to be read into levels of what you’re watching. Here the only relevance was that the 3 division difference was obvious, with Bromley Heath passing and moving better and when the chances came taking the chances that came their way. Adam Nolan’s man-of-the-match performance was about far more than his hat trick.

Of course neither side will remember the score for too long, as always this friendly was about blowing away cobwebs and sharpening fitness for the long season ahead. But it was fun to watch!