ELSTON'S BIG HISTORY DAY IS CUT SHORT BY LATE COLTS GOALS

 Eurosoccer Nottinghamshire Senior League: Division One

ELSTON UNITED FC 1 MEDEN VALE COLTS 2

Photo taken by Craig Dabbs

Programme £2

Badges £4

Attendance 161

A very special day in Elston United FC's history as they bought adult football to their village for the first time, hoppers came from Scotland to Kent and all over the UK to witness this historic game and ground.

At 2.15pm, there was the opening of the ground by a relative of Charles Darwin who lived in the village in the olden days, a few speeches and the ribbon was cut, at 2.50pm both sets of players left the changing rooms in to bright sunshine to every player and referee being clapped on to the beautiful laid pitch, whilst on the outside of the pitch, the ladies were selling teas, coffees and cobs of every flavour you can imagine, some hoppers even saw a cake but that was to be split up between the 2 clubs after the match in the local pub.

The game kicked off and though I didnt see much of it, like most of the groundhop matches I set up, checking everyone is having a good time and making sure nothing is a problem, it did seem to be a bit of a dull 75 minutes, but then the game sprang in to life, when Meden Vale took the lead and it was soon 2-0 as they doubled their lead, with only a few minutes left, the homesters got back in the game with a penalty. In the final minute, the Clams must have thought they had grabbed a point when a shot was heading for the bottom corner of the net, but the Colts keeper had other ideas as he dived and pushed the ball round the post at the final second.

I felt that referee David Robinson had a very good game from what I saw of it, as he let the play flow and pulled back when there was no advantages and nice to see no cards shown

From the match programme and donations at the match, we raised £251.49 after the cost of inks and paper was taken out, but unbelievelely the Charity Blog's running total has smashed over £3000 for Autism Awareness as it currently stands on £3,008.27p

A massive thankyou to all the hoppers that turned up today and the locals to make a attendance of a superb 161 people coming along to Elston United FC's new ground

In the pub after the game I presented the club with a framed programme for their cluh on this historic day.

A few photos I took today can be found on this LINK