Sunday 28th July 2024 ko 12:00

United Counties League Division One

COALVILLE TOWN 0

SOUTHWELL CITY 1 (Eckers 15)

Att 792

Entry £7

Programme £2

When we at GroundhopUK started to put together this edition of the UCL Hop the thought of going to Owen Street hadn’t crossed our minds. Coalville were nicely esconced in the Southern League Premier Central, but then came the shocking news that they wrere resigning, citing financial difficulties. They were quickly accepted by the United Counties League which immediately created an unusual situation for us.

We knew this would be Coalville’s first game in their new league, and as such would create a lot of local interest. We did wonder whether interest amongst groundhoppers would be less, the normal thinking is that the higher up the pyramid a club has played, the greater the number of hoppers who will have paid the ground a visit previously.

Then there was the question of how many people could the club expect to see at the turnstile. Advance ticket sales helped with the number of hoppers, but the local support was virtually impossible to predict. Certainly it wasn’t a game where GroundhopUK could claim total credit for the size of the crowd although I do wonder what would the crowd would have been if the game had kicked off at the regulation Saturday at 3pm?

At times the club struggled to accomodate the huge crowd. An extra turnstile was opened, then a side gate was opened to make sure everyone everyone made it in before kickoff. Then, and only then did my attention to the game itself.

The impression I got was that most of the crowd were expecting a straightforward Coalville win, they’d dropped three divisions after all! I’m not going to claim I had any insider knowledge, more a great respect for who Southwell City are and how they go about things. They were wonderful hosts on last year’s hop after all.

So when Felix Eckers’ curling free kick produced the only goal of the game, I did allow myself an inward smile. Part of it was that English trait of backing the underdog, but another enjoyed a team working out how to win, and executing that plan beautifully. I’ve little doubt that come the end of the season Coalville will be in the mix for promotion, but on this Sunday lunchtime it was unquestionably Southwell’s moment.